Haifuri: Iron Bottom Sound
by Thorthemighty321
Summary: After the Malay Barrier Incident, war broke out, nearly everything in the USN Pacific Fleet was committed to the fight. But the unexpected occurred, for a combined American-Japanese Infantry School expedition to a jungle island for learning about jungle combat. Discovered something that could lead to the fall of Australia. Instead of running, they stayed and fought.
1. Sound Off

**AN: Not sure if you could call this a sequel per se to Haifuri: Gone Asiatic but the premise is similar and actually takes part in the same timeline, about three months afterward, with the final battle that occurred in Haifuri: Gone Asiatic occurring on November 1st, 2020. But this time it revolves Moeka China and her crew aboard the mighty** _ **Ikoma**_ **an** _ **Ikoma**_ **class Cruiser which is basically a Design B-65 Cruiser.**

 **Also I don't own anything at all save the OCs.**

 **Anyway, weigh anchor!**

* * *

 _March 18th, 2055_

 _Thirty Years after the Imperial Republics War_

The Imperial Republics War also known as the Kraken War which is best known for the way it started with the Malay Barrier Incident and how it ended, the Sri Lanka/India Campaign is often shrouded in mystique. It's most famous years are it's first two because during the majority of the opening two years the Navy and Blumer Forces in the Pacific and East China Sea were constantly reacting to sudden events where the enemy was constantly launching hit-and-run attacks and violent and unexpected offensives, with the majority occurring around the Formosa Strait, this often led to titanic duels between People's Liberation Army Navy, Republic of China Navy, Japanese Blumer forces, on occasion -during the first six months of the war- USN Nuclear Powered Battleship Groups, and enemy forces.

But, besides that point. Often times with major military forces clashing against the enemy near Taiwan and occasionally in the East China Sea, it meant that their wasn't much from stopping the enemy from trying to take Australia. This is really where the unsung heroes of war come into play. The brave boys and girls of the American Junior Navy Academy Pacific Fleet, its Marine counterpart, and Royal Australian Navy Youth Academy students, time and again they helped avert disaster and even got the nerve to launch retaliatory strikes on occasion with varying results. They also generally fought in some of the most intense actions in the entire war and applied serious pressure against the enemy and where the first ones to lead a major offensive _against_ the enemy instead of defensive actions.

But, it all had started some place and the spot where actual progress was made in stopping the enemy was in the Solomon Islands, to be specific on an island with only 2,037 square miles of area, mostly Jungle, this island was called Guadalcanal, but while important land battles did occur on the canal as some veterans called it, some of the much more important actions happened at sea. Really a deciding factor in making sure that the enemy didn't get to use an airfield to interdict shipping heading for Australia. These actions were often brutal, somewhat one-sided, night affairs and due to the length of the campaign that resulted, numerous ships were sunk in the strait that was between Guadalcanal and Malaita. Before the war the strait was known as Sealark Channel but now it went by a different name: Iron Bottom Sound.

Today a rather unique ship, the _Laney Chouest_ glided through the waters of the Iron Bottom Sound. Her bright red hull and tan superstructure had a dull gleam to it. The ship herself wasn't exactly a special purpose research ship but instead was a mere Louisiana mudboat, her purpose was to ferry supplies including specialized mud to offshore oil rigs. Thanks to her various systems she was perfect for a mission such as this, sending submersibles and ROVs down to the seafloor to film and photograph sunken ships. But likely any expedition, it required funding as such this expedition was being backed by both the Japanese Maritime Law Enforcement Department better known as the Blue Mermaids and the United States Navy. The man in charge of the expedition itself was from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: Dr. Robert Ballard, the man who had found the wreck of RMS _Titanic_ and the Nazi German Battleship _Bismarck_. However also on the expedition was several veterans from both sides.

Moeka China was one of those veterans who was on the expedition, she'd become a Blumer herself in the fourth year of the war and had commanded the Blue Mermaid Battleship _Yamato_ which had been reactivated and had served with distinction during the last three years of the war. But before she'd formerly became a Blumer she'd fought in several intense actions with some of the most chaotic and intense happening during the Guadalcanal clash. She was on extended leave for five-weeks before she was expected to be back in Tokyo to take command of the Blue Mermaids first ever Guided Missile Cruiser, the _Chitose_.

She had actually aged rather well, what with only a few wrinkles here and there; but they were mainly from smiling and laughing. She didn't have to worry about grey hair since that was her natural hair color, but her eyes held a certain amount of melancholy in them. She was wearing her typical white officers uniform.

But now here she was on a expedition to Iron Bottom Sound to explore the numerous wrecks that dotted the seafloor here. "You okay, Moka? You're being awfully quiet." A voice asked beside her, Moeka turned and saw her close friend Akeno. "Yes I'm fine Mike, it's just that so many lives were lost either in or over these waters. To myself and the crew of the _Ikoma_ who served on her during the Guadalcanal Campaign as well as the entire USN as well it's Junior Naval Academies, these waters are considered sacred and thus whenever a ship transits Iron Bottom Sound, a strict silence is enforced on the ship." Moeka replied looking at Akeno. While her best friend wasn't a veteran of the Guadalcanal Campaign, she had requested for and had earned extended leave so she could offer moral support if needed.

While the years had been decently nice to Moeka over the course of her career, she still had a few scars here and there, mostly in her torso from the occasional lucky piece of shrapnel that had penetrated her protective vest. They hadn't been as kind to Akeno, she had a number of scars covering her, including a big ugly one along her leg from a piece of steel that had really torn the muscles up in that area, she also had a pair of ugly ones in her side from two more pieces of shrapnel that had been sent flying thanks to the same hit that had sent the piece of shrapnel flying into her leg, during the Malay Barrier Incident. What's more her vibrant hair was started to grey and the spark in her eyes while it was still there was certainly muted, but still that didn't let her get down.

"Why are these waters considered sacred? Is there a reason for that?" Akeno asked sounding a little confused. Moeka tried to figure out why that was until she figured out that unlike her, Akeno had mostly served in the East China Sea theater during the Imperial Republics War and thus she didn't really know.

"First ever naval battle here resulted in no less than _five_ friendly Heavy Cruisers sunk with a sixth having the crap beaten out of it and in return, the friendly forces didn't sink a single enemy ship, but did get some licks in. Later a goddamned Sugar Boat managed to get close enough to the enemy formation that had all but annihilated the Heavy Cruiser formation back at Savo Island and succeeded in torpedoing an enemy Heavy Cruiser before Destroyers drove it off. There are over fifty ships that lie on the bottom in this channel alone, let alone in and around the entirety of the Solomon Island chain. A large number of souls were lost in these seas." Moeka said in a tone that was somewhere between bitter and solemn.

"Really, over fifty ships are in this channel alone? Well that explains why these waters to some are considered sacred ground. Still, if I am remembering correctly the _Ikoma_ took part in several actions in this general area?" Akeno asked, after straining to remember.

"Yes, several times actually. Including both 1st and 2nd Naval Battles of Guadalcanal, the _Ikoma_ took a bit of a beating in the 1st Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and then against my better judgement I decided to have the _Ikoma_ , with only minimal repairs done to the damage sustained at the 1st Naval Battle of Guadalcanal to follow the _South Dakota_ , _Washington_ , _Walke_ , _Benham_ , _Preston_ , and _Gwin_ into Iron Bottom Sound for the 2nd Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. It resulted in nearly having my ship shot-out from under me." Moeka said somewhat bitter.

"I remember hearing about that and if I remember right it was that reason alone which resulted in you mainly staying in the South Pacific Theater during the war. Simply because you were a part of a core of battle-tested Captains and the Superintendent was smart and decided that it would be easier to keep _Ikoma_ in one piece if she was based out of Pearl." Akeno replied.

"That's true, it's just that I was on the sidelines for so long after that battle mainly because they basically had to rebuild the _Ikoma_ because of the savage beating she took." Moeka said shaking her head.

"I can imagine that. Still why are you out here? I mean, _Ikoma_ wasn't sunk in battle." Akeno asked curious.

"Let's just say that I feel obligated to the crews of sunken ships my crew rescued and to those on my crew who didn't make it home. The same is also true with those who we rescued but succumbed to their injuries on the _Ikoma_. It's really a way of just visiting them, I haven't been to this area in years." Moka said calmly, shaking her head slightly and gesturing out to the calm waters.

"You know how after the whole Malay Barrier Incident with the Kraken Fleet how it was then revealed that it was a rapidly expanding India and Bangladesh that that had renamed itself and this was after the sudden and unexpected collapse of its government in 2009 after the Asteroid 2008 TC-3 **(1)** , something the size of the _Seawise Giant_ that impacted near Sri Lanka and the resulting tsunamis and continental subsidence from the massive earthquakes that the impact triggered. I don't think anyone expected that. I mean it was eerie similar to what resulted in World War II kicking off. **(2)** " Akeno said.

"Yeah, you know one of the things the Junior Navy Academies had begun to do right around when the whole shitstorm with the Imps had begun was that each fleet was getting it's own paint scheme. The Atlantic Fleet since it was oldest was going to keep the Great White Fleet paint scheme, while the Pacific Fleet used a base paint scheme of Measure 21 and then laid onto that, running from stem to stern roughly halfway up the hull just aft of the rate number which was in white was thick red stripe running down the length of the ship roughly amidships though that red stripe then had six bright white stars painted inside of it. But no one found out what the Asiatic Flotilla of the Junior Naval Academy was going to receive." Moka said calmly.

"Yeah, I remember hearing about that, but either way, images of American ships clad first in the colors of the Great White Fleet and later in unique variations of Measures 31, 32, and 33 with either the standard colors or more commonly Cavite Blue became synonymous with those actions. But besides that point, why did you ask for me to tag-along? Doesn't make sense." Akeno asked.

"Mike, the reason I asked you join me on this trip is so you could learn just by looking at the various ships that we'll investigate here and help you get a sense of scale for the battles that happened here; not only that be it will help you understand how my first campaign went." Moeka replied before looking thought and then continuing. "That and just like when we were on that expedition that found the wrecks of the _Electra_ , _Encounter_ , _Pope_ , _Exeter_ , and _Tokoro_ ; where I tagged along for moral support it's the same deal with you being here."

"Oh, makes sense I guess. It wasn't easy seeing the wreck of the _Tokoro_. God, seeing her hull so violently ripped open by shell fire and lying broken on the seafloor." Akeno said her tone mellow and sad. Moeka put a hand on her friend's shoulder to comfort her. "It wasn't easy for me either. Particularly when Kirkland-san told us about the damage to the base of the pilothouse from that shell. I was amazed that everyone had survived that in the first place."

"Really?" Akeno asked and Moeka nodded. "Indeed, I was amazed by the amount of damage that Kirkland explained that had happened their. More to that matter, I've seen Heavy Cruisers take similar hits and it would generally kill or incapacitate the vast majority of the bridge crew. You got extremely lucky." Moeka said.

"Yeah, I did. As did Tama, Mei, and Kouko. But Rin did not, I've carried the guilt of her not surviving ever since that fateful day. There have been times were I wished that I was the one who didn't make it and that Rin was the one who lost ten percent of her mobility in one of her legs." Akeno said her voice torn with loss, regret, and guilt.

"True, but there are times when I wonder how I survived the sinking of the _Canberra_." A new voice said and the two Japanese Blumers turned and they beheld a man probably two or three years older than they were, he had olive skin, brown eyes, and black hair. He was wearing khaki shorts, a dark blue shirt, and a cap that had the silhouette of a very familiar _Kent_ class Heavy Cruiser, well to Moeka at least.

"Jack! How are you doing?!" Moeka asked as she walked over and greeted fellow Guadalcanal Campaign vet, Jack Chambers. "Doing a damn sight better than I was after the Battle of Savo Island, that's for sure. To this day neither myself nor any of the other brave lads and lasses who survived the sinking of the _Canberra_ have no idea how I managed to survive. Particularly considering where I was on the _Canberra_." Jack replied with a sad smile.

"I remember, you were in bad shape when you were brought aboard the _Ikoma_. Granted I was stunned that five Heavy Cruisers had been sunk and that the sixth one the USS _Chicago_ had suffered incredible damage **(3)**. If I am right, friendly fire was also a thing." Moeka said with a semi-distant gaze.

"Yeah, the _Canberra_ took at least one salvo of gunfire from the _Bagley_ and I'm all but bloody convinced we took a Mark 16 Torpedo from that damn destroyer." Jack replied sourly.

"Still, it's not good to focus on the past. It's better to live in the present and not live in the past. I speak from experience, let's just say the shock of losing Rin caused me to be like that for a couple of months before Mashiro knocked me out of it." Akeno said and Moeka nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that's true. Although let me tell you, that the Battle of Savo Island was just one massive fuck-up after another. It was for us, like watching a train wreck in slow motion." Jack replied sourly.

"Ouch, hey I got to ask. How did the Guadalcanal Campaign start anyway?" Akeno asked.

"Now that's a complicated story. Hell the Guadalcanal Campaign actually started for the Americans at least as a multinational six-month long training mission in the jungle and to be more specific the South Pacific; the island of Guadalcanal was selected for this. You had students from the United States Marine Corps Junior Academy Hollywood and Tōkyō Gurandokonbatto Kōkō. Plus at sea it was planned to have ships from Yokosuka Maritime Girls High School, Toumai Boys Marine High School, United States Navy Junior Academy Pacific, and a pair of ships from Royal Australian Navy Youth Academy. However, just seventy-two hours before it the exercise was slated to begin, an Airship flight heading from Port Moresby to San Francisco by chance flew over Guadalcanal and saw that their was something new on the island, right in the middle of the exercise zone." Moeka said.

"Exactly, a small airstrip that would eventually become known as Jackson Field. What those boys and girls did was incredible, I mean the USMC Junior Academy Pacific students were often issued M5A2 Folsom Carbines **(4)** plus they had a reputation for not being the most reliable weapons in the world, they were accurate yes but they had a nasty habit of jamming at least once in one in every five thirty round magazines. On the hand the SMGs that some mainly the non-combat personnel were issued was the M1A1 Thompson Submachine Gun, it fired a powerful round at a high rate of fire and was very accurate. Then there is the GPMG that they had was the M1919A6, oh boy the M1919A6 it was a solid GPMG about as reliable as can be, rarely jammed, had a cyclic rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute and each platoon had one of the damn things, but they were heavy weighing in at fifteen kilograms and while improvements have been made to help reduce the awkwardness of the thing when it comes to changing barrel. Of course then there was the other Light Machine Gun/Squad Support Weapon that the Marine Students were issued the BAR and the only thing that plagued it was it's occasional habit of jamming and it's small magazine. Of course the sidearm was the ever reliable M1911A1 pistol, hell the military uses it as it's standard issue sidearm for it's knock down power. The standard LAW that they carried I believe were M75 ILAW **(5)**. At least those were their infantry firearm and anti-tank weapons." Jack said shaking his head in amazement at the fact that the Marines had pulled through.

"Yeah and then you look at the weapons that the boys and girls of the Tōkyō Gurandokonbatto Kōkō had. They came equipped with much more powerful and reliable Arisaka Type 55 Battle Rifle **(6)** and Howa Type 58 LMGs **(7)**. Plus they didn't really carry SMGs although they did use standard issue SIG P220 pistols chambered in 9mm. There standard LAW I believe was the M2 Carl Gustav Recoilless Rifle. Plus both groups got standard issue uniforms, armor, and helmets which likely saved a lot of lives." Moeka replied.

Akeno nodded in understanding. "Then you look at the equipment that the enemy forces had and realize that by all rights they should have been effortlessly kicked off the island. There weapons were newer to such a degree that they were factory new, they didn't run into problems often and were powerful things as well. I mean all of the infantry weapons were either chambered in 9x18mm, 5.45x39mm, or 7.62x39mm. Plus I think that their Sniper Rifle used something like 14.5x114mm rounds. Then of course there were the vehicles that they used." Jack said with a shudder and Akeno and Moeka nodded in response.

"Anyway from what I've gathered, when the force that was going to put the boots on that island arrived, a whole area had been cordoned off for shore bombardment practice. The sudden bombardment spooked the enemy and they for the most part fled the airfield which had received enough aircraft just about to start doing air operations. The LSTs had just come ashore to finish off-loading the heavier equipment when suddenly the enemy forces who hadn't been spooked off the airfield when the bombardment started suddenly attacked in a frantic effort to either retake the airfield or destroy the planes that were already their. However they failed in that regard and were repulsed. When word of this got back to I guess Imperial Republic South Pacific Theater Command, they ordered an immediate counter-offensive by both sea and air. The air offensive was heavily bloodied and marginally successful and well the sea offensive, well it was a smashing success." Moeka said and Jack nodded in response.

"Probably the biggest reason that it was so successful was because of the fact that while the top admirals in the USN were happy with their Battleships and Airship carriers, the overall Superintendent of the United States Navy Junior Academies was very much an innovative man. He tried to convince the head USN admirals of the idea of converting their airship carriers into aircraft carriers which considering how it could be done with little modification was rather impressive in itself. However they wanted proof that it could work and this happened about three years before the war started, but anyway six airship carriers were selected for conversion. The two _Saratoga_ class Airship Carriers **(8)** and all four _Yorktown_ class Airship Carriers **(9)** were selected for conversion instead of the eight _Essex_ class Airship Carriers. While those things were in drydock getting refitted, the overall Superintendent of the USNJAs, Admiral Shane went to several aircraft corporations which until that time had only built planes for the rich: Curtiss, Douglas, and Grumman." Jack said shaking his head.

"If I remember right, Curtiss couldn't figure out a design that would work. While Douglas submitted a potent little dive-bomber **(10)** and Grumman submitted a fairly high performance and powerful fighter **(11)**. Curtiss later figured out there problem during the war and submitted a torpedo bomber design right?" Akeno asked curiously.

"Yeah, they did. But for the longest time they had nothing but fighters and dive bombers, while airships did nearly everything else. Although the Douglas planes were used on occasion for active scouting. But just to become a pilot for one of those things, you had to pass a standard flight exam and medical checkup. Anyway we had one of those new fangled aircraft carriers at the start of that campaign." Moeka said.

"Hey, Moeka quick question. Why was the _Ikoma_ late in terms of arriving at Guadalcanal? She wasn't at Savo Island and probably didn't arrive in the channel until 0630 or so after we got pasted by enemy Heavy Cruisers." Jack asked.

"Yeah, we had one of the main steam lines that fed one of the turbines pop on us. We were forced to completely shut down the turbine, route steam to the other turbine, reduce our speed significantly, repair the stupid thing, and then go over the turbine and steam line with a fine tooth comb. That's what stopped _Ikoma_ being at Savo Island." Moeka said looking out at Iron Bottom Sound again.

"Let's head inside and grab something to eat and then we can start to exchange stories. Besides I heard that also onboard is a veteran from the Imperial Republic who also served in the Guadalcanal Campaign, let's go find that guy and listen to some of his stories." Jack said and Moeka and Akeno nodded in response.

* * *

 **AN: Alright that's the first chapter, I tried to get as much world-building and exposition out of the way as physically possible. But I doubt I got all of it. Anyway, the** _ **Ikoma**_ **is a Design B-65 Cruiser, she's fast and lethal armed with two quadruple torpedo launchers, nine 310mm/50 caliber guns, sixteen 10cm/65 caliber Type 98 guns in eight double mounts, twelve Type 96 25mm AA guns in twin mounts, four single 13mm machine gun mounts. Top speed of thirty-three knots and her armor is as follows: 210 mm (8.3 in) to 190 mm (7.5 in) barbettes, 190 mm (7.5 in) side armor inclined 20 degrees,  
125 mm (5 in) armored deck, 180 mm (7.1 in) conning tower sides, 125 mm (4.9 in) conning tower roof.**

 **Below are the various notes for the numbers seen in the chapter.**

One thing of note, WWII in this universe lasted till late 1948, but this time while the main aggressor was Nazi Germany, they only went Nazi after a successful coup in late 1930 that had the majority of the Weimar Republic Government imprisoned, but the _Reichspräsident_ at the time Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg better known as Paul von Hindenburg as well as his family and part of his cabinet and _Hauptmann_ Erwin Rommel (who had ironically been in Berlin just before the Coup happened to attend the 1930s European Skating Championship and happened to be passing the _Reichspräsidentenpalais_ as the coup began and despite being injured succeeded in disrupting the coup enough to allow the _Reichspräsident_ to escape)managed to escape to Great Britain on the _Mackensen_ class battlecruiser _Graf Spee_ under the command of _Kapitän zur See_ Johann Günther Lütjens after fighting a brief running battle with the newly rechristened KMS _Weissenburg_ name ship in her class of Battleships (L 20 a class) and formed the Weimar Republic in exile. The war started in 1938 when Germany which was part of the Berlin-Rome-Constantinople Alliance also known as the Axis invaded Poland with a Blitzkrieg campaign, a brilliant strategy that had airships, artillery, motorized and later mechanized infantry, and armor working together to utterly crush the enemy, the entire country falling within a month, less than six months later, Italy and the much reduced Ottoman Empire launched their own invasions, with Italy with some German support invaded North Africa in 1940, while the Ottoman Empire invaded Central Europe, swinging upward and rapidly taking Greece, Hungary, Austria, and other nations in the region in 1938 at the same time Poland was invaded. By mid 1939 Germany controlled the low countries of Europe, as well as Norway, Sweden, and Finland being inducted into the Axis powers, then they invaded France which resulted in Great Britain entering the war but ended with Operation Dynamo occurring in mid 1940; while Italy and the Ottoman Empire began to seriously build-up their militaries. Over the course of 1940 through 1943 there were no less than three attempted invasions of Great Britain with each one barely getting beaten back with incredible losses each time as well as an invasion of the Soviet Union which went sour after the catastrophic Battle of Stalingrad. However in early 1944, after a German U-Boat "Accidentally" torpedoed and sunk the American Airship Carrier USS _Ranger_ with heavy loss of life, the US entered the war. The war finally ended October 21st, 1948 after the North Africa Campaign, Sicily Campaign, Italian Campaign, Mesopotamian Campaign, Greek Campaign, Normandy Campaign, followed by the European and Central European Campaigns and a death toll that was over thirty million for military casualties alone. However, the ultimate goal was achieved, Paul von Hindenburg and his government was reinstated, the Ottoman Empire was broken up, Germany despite Soviet protests remained a unified nation and other nations returned to the map, some democratic and others Communist and thus the Cold War began.

TC-3 was a real asteroid. Note, I said _was_ , well that's because in real life, the asteroid known as 2008 TC-3 was a rock 4.1 meters or 13 feet in diameter and weighed 80 metric tons. 2008 TC-3 is notable in that it was the first ever asteroid that was tracked from detection to impact, it entered Earth's atmosphere on October 7th, 2008 and exploded an estimated thirty-seven kilometers over the Nubian Desert in northern Sudan. Now in this story, 2008 TC-3 is a tremendous mother that was detected at roughly the same time that RL 2008 TC-3 was detected by an astronomer roughly nineteen hours or so before impact.

In real life, the Battle of Savo Island or the Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks as some veterans call it was the first naval battle of the Guadalcanal Campaign. The Americans and Australians had a combined total of six Heavy Cruisers in Iron Bottom Sound although HMAS _Australia_ didn't engage the enemy. The battle was a resounding victory for the Japanese for absolutely no loss in the surface action they sank USS _Quincy_ , USS _Astoria_ , and USS _Vincennes_ , so badly damaged the HMAS _Canberra_ that she had to be scuttled, and dealt major damage to USS _Chicago_ , in return the only major loss the Japanese suffered happened when USS _S-44_ stumbled across the five Japanese Heavy Cruisers that had partaken in the action and torpedoed the _Kako_.

The M5A2 Folsom Carbine, if you've ever played the game Resistance you know what I am talking about, however in this case the M5A2 Folsom Carbine won't suffer from the "Big gun" syndrome that it does in game. First we're removing that paddle stock, it's way too big. In it's place there is an M14E2 Style stock and pistol grip. The weapon itself is roughly the size of an M1 Carbine and is a natural evolution of M2 Carbine which was an Assault Rifle, but wasn't designed from the ground up as one like the M5A2 was, it has the Iron Sights of the M1 Garand, the barrel length of the M1 Carbine, and a modified M1918 BAR receiver. It was chambered in 7.62x33mm aka .30 Carbine. The M5A2 saw extensive service first in the ending stages of WWII, Korea, and even a little service in Vietnam but it was partially replaced by the M14 and eventually completely by the M16 during Vietnam. The weapons that are issued to United States Marine Corp Junior Academy students who are on ships and in ground exercises are generally new builts chambered for 6.8x39mm NATO **(a)**

 **(a)** The 6.8x39mm or .277 Wolverine round OTL is a wildcat cartridge. It's a .223 Remington or 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge. In order to allow the 5.56x45mm case to accept the longer and heavier rounds, the case was shortened and given a larger neck and 23-degree shoulder. This round can fit in a STANAG magazine and in order to fire it out of a M16/AR15 rifle all that's needed is a barrel swap, yet this gives a hard-hitting round to a cartridge that's been the standard since for NATO since the 1980s. By hard hitting out of a 16in barrel a 5.56x45mm M855 4 gram projectile has a muzzle velocity of 2,900 feet per second with a ballistic coefficient of 0.304, and has 785 Joules of energy at 300 yards; the .277 Wolverine with a 6.5 gram projectile out of the same barrel has a muzzle velocity of 2,700 feet per second, with a ballistic coefficient of 0.323, and has 1,022 Joules of energy at 300 yards.

The M75 ILAW first entered service in 1986 and in all respects it's an upsized M72 LAW thus the moniker ILAW or "Improved Light Anti-Tank Weapon". This weapon is a single-shot reloadable weapon that's somewhat similar to the RPG-29 in design but it fires an 85mm projectile, this weapon is powerful and has completely replaced the M72, it can fire a wide-variety of warheads, however during the opening stages of the Guadalcanal Campaign, this weapon proved instrumental in stopping an enemy Amphibious Recon Tank offensive on Jackson Field.

The Arisaka Type 55 Battle Rifle first entered service in 1955 and saw service in the mainline military until 1985 although to this day, the DMR variant is still in service with the military and the Imperial Palace Guards use this rifle as their predominantly issued weapon. It was replaced in mainline service by the Type 89 Assault Rifle, the weapon itself is chambered in 7.7x58mm Arisaka.

The Howa Type 58 LMG is an OTL NTK/Sumitomo Type 62 machine gun, but is chambered in 7.7x58mm Arisaka just like the Type 55 BR is.

The _Saratoga_ class Airship Carrier later Aircraft Carrier is for all intents and purposes a _Lexington_ class Aircraft Carrier from OTL but USS _Saratoga_ and USS _Ranger_ were built as Carriers while the rest of the _Lexington_ sisters were built as Battlecruisers, although the _Ranger_ is widely regarded as the better of the two because she incorporated numerous lessons learned from _Saratoga_ in her construction. Below the flight deck, they carried a large number of spares from gas bladder patches to whole engines and such. The massive overhaul to convert these ships for aircraft operations included building a whole new flight deck and installing an arresting-wire system.

The _Yorktown_ sisters for all intents and purposes are the same but it's a four-ship class composed of USS _Yorktown_ , USS _Enterprise_ , USS _Wasp_ , and USS _Hornet_. Now USS _Wasp_ is just another _Yorktown_ class built to the same specifications although she does have a large deck-edge elevator. The facilities that the _Yorktown_ class had was similar to the _Saratoga_ class as was the overhaul that they had.

Early on during the Imperial Republic War, the primary strike airplane that the United States used was built by Douglas Aircraft Company, the plane was known as the Resolute. The craft had a crew of two, swiss cheese dive flaps, it was powered by a famed Pratt and Whitney R-1830-75, a popular, powerful, and lightweight engine that was offered by the famed Engine company to power novelty aircraft that the rich flew. The dive bomber itself was lightly armed with only two M2 Brownings firing through the forward propeller arc and two A/M240s which is an M240 modified for use in aircraft at high altitude in the wings, for defense it had a single A/M240 in a flex mount facing aft. It had self-sealing fuel tanks and bullet proof glass. It had a single semi-recessed hardpoint along its centerline allowing up to a single 2,000 pound bomb to be carried plus on the wings it could carry up to a single 500 pound bomb. With a long combat range and solid payload it was a rugged plane, it was 34 feet long, had a wingspan of 41 feet 6 ⅜ inches, and stood 14 feet tall; with a top speed of 270 miles per hour and a cruising speed of 190 miles per hour with a range of roughly 1,170 miles, and a maximum service ceiling of just over 25,000 feet and a rate of climb of just under 2,000 feet per minute. It's first ever recorded use was during the 1st Semester of the 2020 school year just a couple of days after the United Imperial Republics revealed theirs. (Based upon the Douglas Dauntless Dive Bomber)

The plane that Grumman provided was a powerful and lethal fighter plane. The aircraft was loved by its pilots because of it's durability, all around cockpit visibility, powerful armament, speed, and maneuverability. Tentatively called the F1F project by Grumman someone said when they saw it fly for the first time that "It has the big and powerful look of a Bear and the sleekness and speed of a big cat." Grumman seeing how they could use this as trademark material coined it the "Bearcat". With an incredibly powerful Wright Cyclone R-3550-34W engine producing 3,400 horsepower. Thanks to its bubble canopy the all-around visibility is excellent plus with a top speed of 485 miles per hour, a rate of climb of 4,350 feet per minute it's incredibly fast and an excellent climber. The armament that the Bearcat can carry is crazy, two 1,000 pound bombs under the wings or eight 5in rockets under the wings plus either a 250 gallon fuel tank on the centerline or a 500 pound bomb, combined with it's gun armament of six M2 Browning Machine Guns. The aircraft itself was thirty feet long, had a wingspan of thirty six feet, and stood thirteen feet ten inches tall. The plane had armor protecting the pilot, engine, and oil systems, the bubble canopy was made out of bullet proof glass, and it had self-sealing fuel tanks. Combined with a range of 1,115 miles and service ceiling of 42,300 feet, there was a reason pilots called this thing the "hotrod". (Based upon the Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat with some modifications)


	2. An Interesting Discovery

**AN: Alright time to delve into the story proper. Sure that was an interesting intro with most of the backstory getting put out of the way.**

 **Now let's see what the annals of history has to hold for us?**

* * *

 **0630 Hours, February 5th, 2020**

 **In the Sealark Channel**

The Sealark Channel was far more crowded than usual, for two separate groups of ships had slipped into the channel. This force included two airship carriers: the _Ticonderoga_ and the _Essex_ , one of those new fangled aircraft carriers _Enterprise_ , the fast battleship _North Carolina_ , twelve Heavy Cruisers of mostly American "Treaty" Cruisers although there was a pair of Australian Heavy Cruisers and three light cruisers, thirty-six destroyers, seventeen troop transports, and sixteen Landing Ship Tanks carrying some seven thousand United States Marine Corp Junior Academy Hollywood Students and some five thousand students from Tōkyō Gurandokonbatto Kōkō. Plus some armor, vehicles, and support equipment and staff. Everything that was needed to carve a habitable area out of the jungle.

The most prominent of the ships was the ten American-flagged _Whidbey Island_ class Dock Landing Ships, each carrying a hair over five hundred Marine students each and held within their well docks were Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Personnel Fives and the seven _Izu_ class Dock Landing ships each carrying around six hundred fifty odd students from Tōkyō Gurandokonbatto Kōkō. There was also a number of LSTs with them.

The various task groups went about their tasks, however it all began to get interesting when a flight of those new Resolute Dive Bombers flew out over the island just a couple of minutes before the bombardment of the areas that were between Lunga and Koli Points.

What they found was incredible, an honest to god airstrip had been built in the jungle. When word was passed to the ships, it changed everything. Particularly when someone made a low pass and discovered that the base belonged to the United Imperial Republic.

When a Marine General by the name of Richard Vandergrift got word of this. He looked at the report and then looked at his command staff and said aloud. "Why the hell would the Imps set up an airfield out here? I mean they got a tremendously powerful military, but why are they _here_? I thought most of their forces were in combat with the Chinese, Japanese, and us in the area around the Formosa Strait, Luzon Strait, and East China Sea." He growled.

"Sir, if I may. The Imps played this one very goddamned smart, with this airstrip here. They will be able to interdict shipping that's heading for Australia and given how hard they are fighting elsewhere. Well they take Australia it will be nearly impossible to take back." an aide said.

"Right and we are the only ones in a position to stop them. Here's what we are going to do then. Release the _Ticonderoga_ and _Essex_ as well as there task groups. We don't need them not if this is going to go how I think it is. Try and get one hell even two of our new fangled Aircraft Carriers here, I don't care if you have to goddamn bribe them with Ice Cream or action or something! Alert the bombardment ships that the original plan is off, have the _Enterprise_ keep two of her Resolute's on station but have the rest armed for action. They are to target AA guns, runways, taxiways, artillery positions, etc. Also have the Big E launch a flight of Resolutes to check out Tulagi, Florida, Hanesavo, Vatilau, Olevuga, Gavantu, and Tanambogo islands. Naval Gunfire support is going to be a must, also someone get the Pentagon on the horn. Tell them we need an MEU down here ASAP to relieve us." He said gruffly.

"Sir, what are we going to do in the meantime?" An aide asked.

"In the meantime we're going to _take_ that airfield and an area around it. That's going to become our home for the foreseeable future. I want us to take as many planes as possible intact, the same also goes for fuel and ordinance. Clear?" Vandergrift replied.

"Yessir!" Several of the aides replied.

"Right let's get cracking then." Vandegrift said bluntly.

With that, orders were transmitted. The two big and mighty _Essex_ class Airship Carriers and their task groups began to pull away. Rapidly leaving the area, however the _Enterprise_ turned into the wind. Brand new SBDs and F1Fs were brought up to the flight deck, already fueled, armed, and ready to rip. Shortly their after the planes began to lumber into the air, one after the other. At around the same time, the order came down and USS _Quincy_ CA-39 opened fire with her main battery. Her eight inch guns pulsing with fire and smoke as they hurled shells down range, within moments massive plumes of earth were being thrown skyward as the _Quincy_ and other ships began to add their fire to the carnage.

Meanwhile above the island the occasional black puff of smoke appeared in the sky as the craft from _Enterprise_ began their attack. Quickly laying waste to the runways, taxiways, and AA guns. Regardless the attack was powerful and nearly continuous, the intent was clear that they were slamming the island hard. But after two hours of continuous shelling, the transports disgorged their cargo: LVTP-5s and several other models of said AMTRAC as well as Japanese LTVP-6s.

Inside the LVTP-5s it was hot and cramped plus the ride was nauseating to those who hadn't rode in these things a couple of times. Not that Corporal Thomas Fitzgerald minded, he was excited it was the first time that he was being deployed, well in a sense, the reason his initial rank within the school was a Corporal was due to the grades he received on the entrance exams, as such he was in charge of eight other guys; or a single squad composed of two four man fireteams. The AMTRAC motored ponderously through the swells, but everyone was grinning and exchanging jokes. All the while shells rumbled overhead and the reverberating blasts of bombs hitting their targets resounded. Everyone on board the AMTRAC was excited as well many onboard the LVTP-5 were just freshmen and this was either their first or second time but for everyone it was the first time where air power was a serious player. Still was bound to be exciting. "Ninety seconds!" The CO of the LVTP-5 called out.

Instantly the grins and jokes disappeared. Thomas unslung his M5A2 Folsom Carbine, it was a solid weapon. He went over it with a fine-tooth comb once more. He clicked the safety off but he didn't charge the weapon, the last thing that was needed was the powerful weapon getting discharged inside an enclosed metal compartment, that meant a ricochet was bound to happen. Still, soon it was going to be time. The LVTP-5 shuddered as it clawed its way out of the water and transitioned onto dry land. Before long dozens of the vehicles were doing the same, trudging slowly out of the water. The vehicles quickly began to power towards the jungle's edge but considering the vast change in their expedition, they encountered no resistance.

"This is strange, considering what we were told, I was expecting to be hearing rounds pinging off the armor." Thomas said, shaking his head in dismay.

"I dunno, maybe we caught them napping?" Another student asked curiously.

"No, we didn't catch them napping. But we probably sure as hell surprised them. Plus given the fact that we likely have aerial superiority and gave them several hard knocks with a naval gunfire bombardment. So they are likely running for the hills at the moment." The ell-tee replied.

"Makes sense, it's what I would be doing when if a force of Heavy Cruisers suddenly arrived and started shelling the absolute shit out of you. Plus with aeroplanes bombing and strafing that is something that well if they caught you off-guard would send you running." Someone added.

"That's a fact, so ell-tee, what is up with the sudden change to what we are doing on this expedition?" Thomas asked curiously.

"A flight of Resolute's from _Enterprise_ flew over Guadalcanal and they found a goddamned United Imperial Republics Airstrip. Just by eyeballing the size of the airstrip they estimate that their is probably somewhere between five thousand and eight thousand enemy soldiers on the island. Their intent is clear, they are going to use the airstrip in order to stop merchant traffic heading toward Australia. It's going to be our job to make sure that doesn't happen. If we're lucky we might get an MEU to relieve us but as you all know, the United Imperial Republics otherwise known as the Kraken Republic are pushing hard against China, the PLAGF is struggling against them. From what I've heard the III Marine Expeditionary Force got pretty badly mauled and the Brass are getting ready to blitz the I and II Marine Expeditionary Force in, if we're lucky we may get the remains of the III MEF in order to bolster our presence here on the island." The 1st semester Sophomore replied.

"The III MEF isn't the best shape at all. All things considered, the 1st Marine Airship/Rotor Wing is in tatters they got only one Cobra Gunship that can still fly and their airships are gone. Plus the various infantry units are pretty effectively gutted the only good news is that their Abrams are still good as are the logistic units." Thomas added shaking his head.

"How the hell do you know about _that_?" Someone asked.

"My dad's a Marine, he's in the III MEF, 31st MEU, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, Lima Company. Yesterday we had a video chat, the war in China ain't going well. The Kraks are seriously pushing hard, both the PLA and PLAN as well as the ROCN are fighting tooth and toenail to stop the enemy advance and are taking murderous losses doing it." Thomas said bluntly and a slightly dour tone as well.

The LVTP-5 angled down slightly before an immense sound of wood splintering resounded through the cabin as the amphibious vehicle powered over an unfortunate tree. The vehicle suddenly lurched to a stop and the vehicle commander growled something out. "We're out ten kilometers out from the Airstrip dismount." he said as the vehicle came to a stop. A moment later the back ramp slowly opened.

"Go! Go! Go!" The ell-tee roared and the thirty-two Junior Marines inside the LVTP-5 stormed out the AMTRAC and into the thick jungle, four squads worth or effectively in the Junior Marines a full platoon. The ground had been rather effectively churned into mud by the AMTRAC, but that didn't matter. These were boys and girls were training to become the best of the standard military forces and nothing was better than on the job training.

"Damn, it's fairly pretty." Someone in Thomas's squad remarked.

"Shut up Mendoza. This jungle training expedition has already gone FUBAR, we're on the frontlines of a new theater that has just opened and at the moment we're the only ones who can stop the Kraks from starving Australia into surrendering. So private, we aren't here to sightsee!" Thomas snapped as he pulled the charging handle on his M5A2 Folsom Carbine and released it. With a sharp but subtle _clack_ the bolt was pulled back and the spring in the magazine slipped a 6.8x45mm NATO M920 FMJBT round into the receiver. With that Thomas signaled for his squad to move out.

It wasn't long though before everyone began bitching about the jungle. To the right of Thomas's squad was the second squad that the LVTP-5 that they had rode in had carried. That squad also had the Platoon Commander and thus for the boys and girls in the platoon was the person in charge. There was a smack somewhere behind him, Thomas glanced over his shoulder, he had the squad moving in a staggered file formation. "Goddamned mosquitoes." Private Jackson Michael growled.

"Get used to it Jackson, we're in the jungle. The one thing that's probably an even bigger foe than enemy fire is the mosquitoes." Thomas said as they'd continued advancing. The LVTPs had really made things a lot easier, in terms of advancing before dismounting the infantry. Still as the sun climbed higher and higher in the sky, they continued advancing inland.

A radio crackled. " _LSTs are starting to off-load supplies and vehicles now. You'll have armor support within the hour._ " Someone on the beach head said.

There was a quick number of affirmatives over the comm, that was good to hear. Soon they were going to have about thirty American Tanks and twelve or so Japanese Tanks on the island, it wasn't much, just M9A3E2 Custers **(1)** , M4A3E2 HVSS (105)s, M48A1 Pattons **(2)** , and M41 Walker Bulldogs. But considering that the Japanese Tanks were predominantly Type-57 MBTs **(3)** and Type 5 Ke-Ho Kai Light Tanks **(4)** and were mainly oriented toward Jungle combat such as this. Still any sort of armor would be very helpful, because well nothing screamed "my gun is bigger than yours." than having forty odd tons of tank supporting you.

Still it would likely be awhile before the tanks were ready and it stood to reason that they needed all to get to that air field ASAP. So despite the fact that they had no armor Thomas's platoon continued to advance, the LVTP-5 trudging on behind them somewhere to their right was a fire-support variant of the LVTP-5 armed with a powerful 105mm Howitzer.

"Sir the trees are starting to thin out. I think we're approaching the airstrip." Jackson remarked.

"Roger." Thomas replied he then said in a slightly louder voice. "Alright, we're going to have a change in terrain, I want everyone's head to be on a swivel." Thomas ordered and he got a chorus of nods and "affirmatives." Sure enough the trees thinned until eventually they emerged on the edge of the airstrip.

"Damnit, a chain link fence. Anyone got a set of wire cutters?" Thomas asked as he stared at the eight foot tall chain link fence that was topped with barbed wire.

"Don't worry! We got the front door right here!" The commander of the LVTP-5 yelled and then a moment later, the engine of the AMTRAC emitted a powerful rumble and powered forward with surprising speed for it's size, quickly reaching its top speed. With a thundering crash, thirty-seven tons of powerful American military grade aluminum crunched its way through the chain link fence with ease. Effortlessly toppling a sizeable portion of fence and crushing the barbed wire flat.

 _I am fairly sure that woke up a lot of people and told everyone "Hey, the Americans are here!" in bold capital letters!_ Thomas thought bitterly as he led his platoon through the hole in the gate, moments later the LVTH-6 powered through it's own section of fence. Just to further emphasize that point.

" _Alright platoon, I want you all to spread out. Split up into fireteams and start a standard sweep of the buildings. The other platoons are going to do the same._ " The ell-tee said over the radio.

"Copy!" Thomas said before giving orders for his squad to split up. "Jackson, Mendoza, Talbot let's go." Thomas said and they moved out, Jackson and Talbot like Thomas were carrying M5A2 Folsom Carbines, although Talbot's had an underslung M203 Grenade Launcher **(5)** but Mendoza instead of carrying an M5A2 Folsom Carbine he was lugging an M1918A2 BAR **(6)** chambered in 6.8x45mm NATO.

After forty five minutes of sweeping four hangers, they slowly approached what appeared to be command center. The building was large, two storied with several large windows on the first floor and several smaller ones on the second floor. It didn't appear to be a pre-fab building unlike the barracks and hangars were, but instead appeared to be made of cinderblock. The four Marines steadily approached the building, but none of them noticed the barrel that was slowly being edged out of a 2nd story window. Nobody that is except Jackson. "WHOA!" He shouted and shoved Thomas to the ground just as all hell broke loose.

Gunfire exploded out of the building, sharp thundering cracks at a high rate as something chambered in Eastern Bloc ammunition opened fire. Thomas heard Jackson shout in pain and heard a long thundering burst from his M5A2, several long bursts actually. "Up! Up! Initiate standard breach and destroy! GO! GO!" Thomas roared as he sprang to his feet and charged forward, his M5A2 barking madly. Jackson was right behind him but he was panting heavily from exertion, it didn't seem possible, but he appeared to be winded.

Jackson and Thomas dove under a small pavilion and joined Talbot and Mendoza. "You okay Jackson?" Thomas asked as they got ready to breach.

"I am good sir, took the shots on the armor. I am going to be sore as fuck tomorrow that's for sure. From the sound of it they are firing 7.62x39mm but I am not sure. Fucking Christ that hurt." Jackson said, shaking his head. Truth be told, it felt like his chest was on fire, but he ignored the pain and to be fair adrenaline was probably helping with that. Although in a few hours he was probably going to feel like shit. Still, he kept his Folsom at the ready.

"Good. Talbot take care of this door for us!" Thomas ordered as more gunfire erupted. The heartier pops of the Folsoms and BARs replying in kind along with the thundering roar of at least one M1919A6. Their was a resounding boom followed by a thundering explosion as a LVTH-6 fired it's main gun at something. The airfield began to degenerate into chaos. More gunfire crackled and popped around them as a frantic firefight erupted. "With pleasure sir!" Talbot boasted and he then with a powerful kick bashed the door in. He rolled smoothly out of the way and allowed Mendoza to the pull the pin on a grenade and tossed it in. The powerful grenade detonated with an ear-splitting _wham_!

"GO! GO! GO!" Thomas barked sharply and he and his men charged into the building. The room they were in appeared to be some sort of entrance hall. On each side of the hall was a hallway, each with four doors on either side. Thomas signaled for standard breaching on every single one. The first seven doors on the first hallway went alright. But the last door revealed something unexpected an enemy HMG mount was blazing away, a thundering _rat-tat-tat_. "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS!" Jackson roared and then everyone's ears were ringing from the two sustained bursts that his M5A2 Folsom Carbine let loose and the HMG fell silent, it's crew of two dead, their bodies riddled with rounds respectively.

"Jesus, Jackson. Between your shouting and shooting. I think you probably just woke the dead." Mendoza remarked and Jackson smirked in response. "Bring it on then. I _like_ a fair fight!"

"I am not sure you would want to fight all of the bastards in this building. Talbot, you and Jackson clear the top floor while myself and Mendoza clear the bottom floor! GO!" Thomas bellowed and the four men moved out.

Talbot and Jackson went running up the stairs, they burst through the door. "OH SHIT!" Jackson yelled in shock and then an instant latter, Talbot's ears were ringing from the utterly deafening blast from a KS-23M 6.27 Gauge pump-action shotgun. Jackson dropped like a rock, a hole roughly seven inches in diameter in his back. "DIE MOTHERFUCKER!" Talbot roared and jammed down on the trigger of his Folsom. The Carbine unleashed a thundering roar and the man with the shotgun stumbled and then dropped, his head and chest thoroughly riddled with rounds. Talbot hit the magazine release and the spent magazine fell to the ground with a clatter and he fished a new magazine out and slid it into his Folsom and then chambered a round. Then all hell broke loose in the hallway in front of him. Several figures burst out of two doors and opened fire, rifle and machine gun fire whizzed toward him.

Several rounds caught him in the armor and sent him stumbling backward and gasping, thinking fast he dropped to a prone position and then cursing he opened fire with his Folsom, the rifle thundered and it kicked firmly against his shoulder. _Damnit! No tracers!_ Talbot thought angrily as he tried to find an aimpoint, but the enemy while they were using tracers they were using subdued tracers.

" _Uh, Talbot. We're still hearing gunfire up their. Is everything alright?_ " Thomas asked confused, they'd probably already taken care off the HMG down stairs.

"I wish! Jackson's dead and I got probably half a dozen guys shooting at me. Give me a second!" Talbot shouted as he opened his grenade launcher, the black ridges in its metal frame, he flipped the launcher open and slotted an HE-FRAG grenade into it and then closed the launcher. " _What do you mean give you a second?_ " Thomas asked confused.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Talbot yelled and he pulled the trigger. A moment later he heard muffled "Oh fuck!" from downstairs and then the 40mm grenade exploded with a thundering _boom_ that made the entire building shake in sympathy. The gunfire slowly began to sputter and die.

Talbot came into a crouch and moved forward slowly. As he did so, coughing came over the radio. " _Goddamnit *cough* Talbot. Don't do fuck-*cough*-ing shit like *cough-cough* that again! *Cough* Plus what the hell do *cough* you mean Jackson's *cough* dead?_ " Thomas growled over the radio, with intermittent coughing.

"He's dead sir. Plain and simple, a bastard with a KS-23M Shotgun firing slug rounds blew hole several inches in diameter into his back. Also I swear that I will no longer fire my grenade launcher inside tight spaces again." Talbot said.

" _Fuck, I need to sit down._ " Thomas said, not even acknowledging Talbot's apology. "You alright sir?" Talbot asked.

" _Alright?_ Alright?! _My first time ever in combat with live ammunition flying around none of that rubber round bullshit and one of my best friends gets killed! No way in hell I am alright!_ " Thomas roared angrily in response.

"Jesus, I am sorry man. Anyway, I am coming downstairs. It's all clear up stairs." Talbot said as he turned and slowly went down the steps. Pausing briefly to close Jackson's eyes which were wide open, shock evident in them. He then retrieved the kid's dog tags, muttered a brief prayer. Then he stood up and trudged downstairs.

It didn't take him long to find Thomas, the guy was sitting in a corner his head in his hands. "Here boss." he said handing Thomas the fallen's dog tags and then walking outside, where sporadic sounds of combat was still resounding through the air, but the sharp cracks of enemy weapons compared to the hearty pops of friendly kit was diminishing at a seemingly exponential rate. The fact that it sounded like their several M2 Brownings and M1919s bellowing in response to the enemy weapons fire hurling 12.7x99mm NATO and 7.62x51mm NATO respectively at there foes was likely also helping.

Still he had a feeling that this was only the beginning of something greater. But he wasn't sure what. As he thought of that, an M9A3E2 Custer rumbled by it's powerful main gun keeping perfectly straight and level, followed by several of its brethren with two of the Japanese MBTs bringing up the rear. Their mighty diesel engines roaring like animalistic beasts as they propelled the vehicle's forward. He wondered if his life could get any worse, one of his best friends was dead and his squad leader was simply a wreck.

* * *

 **0750 Hours, February 5th, 2020**

 **Island of Rabaul**

Meanwhile, some 1800 kilometers away from Guadalcanal on the island of Rabaul, pure chaos was unfolding. The Kraken Republic base had received word just a few hours ago that their newest and most important base that held the key to the conquest of Australia had been attacked and was now in enemy hands. The response had been quick and decisive.

Already a force of three _Ravager_ class Heavy Missile Cruisers **(7)** and two _Dominator_ class Heavy Cruisers **(8)** , each armed with a potent mix of guns, torpedoes, and in the case of the _Ravagers_ missiles, as well as two _Spirit_ class Light Cruisers **(9)** , and three _Harbinger_ class Destroyers **(10)** were getting prepped for sortie.

Meanwhile at the island's primary airfield. It could be best described as controlled chaos. Twenty-six FS-250-A-0 and A-2 Tormentor Fighters **(11)** , two squadrons worth of the lethal fighters, with each squadron containing twelve fighters, were either completely prepped for launch or close to it and nearby was thirty-eight roughly cigar shaped twin-engined bombers, each one had a triple-tail, a turret with a 270-degree arc of fire on top with two machine guns, two machine guns mounted in blisters aft of the wings, another machine gun in the nose, and a singular heavy cannon aft these were BH-35 Hydras **(12)** a fast and lethal bomber.

The plan of attack was simple, one squadron of Tormentors was going to fly out ahead by roughly fifteen minutes ahead of bombers and provide advance escort while the second squadron of fighters would fly close escort for the lumbering bombers.

The rough plan of attack was to have the Hydras equipped with torpedoes go in and attack the transport ships while the fighters swept the sky clear of hostile airships and to strafe enemy ground positions. Thus they could clear a path for the naval group and reinforcements to hit the island and drive the invaders off.

What they didn't know was that there was a brand-new tool in the enemy's toolbox. A fast, agile, and lethal spanner in the works.

Not that twenty year old Pilot Officer Manu Sant knew that, he was a proud Tormentor pilot and this was going to be his first combat mission in the Pacific Theater. He stood roughly five foot eight inches in height, had sea green eyes, and dark red hair. Considering that the craft could crack 500 kilometers per hour. The fact that it was armed with two 7mm Machine Guns and four 20mm cannons, with a great big and powerful radial engine. He had a helmet in his grasp and was wearing a basic flight suit. He was slowly striding up to his craft, it's low mounted wings, three-bladed propeller, wing mounted undercarriage, and the shape of its canopy just seemed to scream speed.

"Hey Manu!" A voice called out behind him, Manu turned and saw a man running up to him. It was one of his best friends, Sheten Shakar. Sheten was twenty-three years old, roughly six feet two inches in height, with an olive complexion, with brown eyes, and slick black hair. He was also a Wing Commander, which meant he was commanding one of the two Tormentor squadrons that was going up today, he like the other wing commander, squadron leaders, and element leaders flew A-2s and the wingmen flew A-0s.

"Sheten!" Manu greeted excitedly. "You excited for today?!" He asked.

Sheten laughed. "Damn right I am! This should be a cakewalk, only thing we'll likely have to worry about is just Anti-Aircraft Fire, probably a few SAM equipped ships but from what few reports we have got from their, it's highly unlikely that there are any we have to worry about. Will probably be just a milk run, far better than what the guys on the Chinese Front are dealing with, each mission they fly they got to deal with a nasty ass enemy air defense system." He said.

Manu nodded in response. "I agree this will be very easy. Any ideas on the amount of flak we may have to deal with?" He asked.

"Unknown, although some estimates are saying probably moderate. Personally I more worried about the Hydras then us sky warriors, mainly because they aren't going to be doing high-speed, low altitude bombing of enemy ships but instead are carrying torpedoes. Thus they'll be more vulnerable to flak than we will, but I am willing to expect that the flak will be more accurate than it was during the Malay Barrier Campaign. Probably because the AA directors will likely be properly calibrated for our kites. So watch yourself." Sheten said, giving his friend the run down.

"Alright fair enough. I know we're in different squadrons, but which squadron is going to be flying ahead for the advanced guard?" Manu asked curiously.

"Mine is, shouldn't be too difficult. Although that will pretty much releget your squadron to baby-sitting. Still, at least it means that the mission itself is going to be easy for ya." Sheten said with a shrug and a sympathetic glance.

"Good for me, still why does the base CO don't allow us to play around? It's always interesting when we're chasing each other. But, we haven't been allowed to do it since basic." Manu said.

"Probably because intelligence believes that it will be a couple of years before the enemy can build a specially designed aircraft that can legitimately pose a threat to us. So we don't have to worry about training for that fact, but still keep your skills sharp in that field." Sheten said with a smile.

"That's good to hear. Anyway, I got a kite to prep. Still it was great seeing you Sheten, good luck." Manu said with a nod.

"You too Manu, you'll need it if only to fend off the boredom." Sheten said and the two close friends laughed and then said goodbye and headed to their respective kites.

As Manu approached his kite, he grinned at it nose art, he'd decided to christen the aircraft "Hummingbird's Maiden" because the kite was certainly one of the most agile man-made things that flew in the skies today. Still he walked around the kite, going over it's surface with a fine tooth comb and then checked all the control surfaces, making sure that they could move freely. Once that was done he climbed into the cockpit.

"You ready sir?" A ground crew member asked.

"Nearly, it won't be time for my squadron to depart in nearly twenty minutes. But it looks like that the Ravagers are getting ready for take-off." Manu said as he looked at the fourteen Tormentors that were taxing to the runway. Instead of the normal paint scheme that the regular fighter squadrons like the one Manu was in, Lancer Squadron was an elite "Ace" Squadron, each sky warrior had at least five kills under his belt.

That and the kites had a unique paint scheme. Each kite had a main color of dark grey, while the wing tips, vertical and horizontal stabilizer tips, and the engine cowling was painted watermelon red, the underbelly of the kites were painted white, and finally running from the engine cowl to the vertical stabilizer was a black stripe this stripe also started at the wing root on each wing and went backwards and up merging with the main stripe. The colors of the Imperial Air Corps, 22nd Air Division, 31st Tactical Fighter Squadron.

However as Manu watched the kites commence their take-off rolls, he suddenly said aloud. "I suddenly got the feeling that I am not going to be seeing the majority of those kites and sky warriors again."

"Don't know what your talking about sir. The Lancers are the best goddamned fighter squadron on Rabaul and if push comes to shove we have two more elite squadrons that we can throw at them. Plus all of the sky warriors in Lancer Squadron have flown numerous missions and have nailed multiple airships and helicopters I think you're worrying about nothing." A ground tech said as the kites of Ravager Squadron began to climb into the air.

"Probably, still I just got a bad feeling. It's probably nothing but still I just can't shake this feeling easily." Manu said as Lancer Squadron began to recede into the distance.

"It's probably nothing sir. They'll be fine. Besides you need your head to be in the game." The ground tech replied.

"Yeah I do." Manu said.

Ten minutes later the Hydra bombers lumbered into the air and they were followed shortly by Manu's squadron: Regal Squadron. The kites of Regal Squadron were painted overall a dark olive drab with the wingtips and tips of the vertical and horizontal stabilizers burgundy, while the engine cowling and underbelly being painted white. The paint scheme had quickly become the standard paint scheme on both the fighters and bombers over China as long as the fighters weren't in elite formations.

* * *

 ***BGM: War Thunder OST: Battle Music 12, Duty, Steel my heart***

Three and half hours later, at an altitude of 25,250 feet and steadily climbing up towards 30,000 feet was a squadron of sixteen F1F Bearcats from the Aircraft Carrier _Enterprise_. This squadron was one of several that the "Big E". The crates themselves were painted in a simple two tone paint scheme. The underbelly was painted white and then roughly halfway up the fuselage the paint changed to sky blue. This two-tone paint scheme while severely lacking in wow factor served a tactical purpose, from below the F1F Bearcat could pass as a cloud from certain altitudes and from above at certain altitudes it appeared to be apart of the ocean. Emblazoned proudly on each of the individual crates on the fuselage and wings a dark navy blue circle with five pointed white star with a red circle in the middle while the rudder had alternating red and white stripes.

Painted just forward of the cockpit near the engine cowling was the squadron's emblem. It was a simple black circle with ten small white five pointed stars scattered through it and then going right to left in a curved downward motion was another five pointed star this time painted red, behind the star from one of the tips was a red trail that went through black circle. In that red trail was the words "Fighting Six".

" _I got to say skipper it's an absolutely lovely day for flying don't you think?_ " One of the pilots in the squadron, Ensign Franklin Wilder asked.

"Yes Wilder I have to agree that it is a nice day. But goddamn is it boring out here." The squadron leader, Lieutenant Commander Wade "Wild Bill" McClusky said in a semi-bored tone.

" _Come on McClusky, if you'd just let us goof around a bit. It will take the boredom right out of the day._ " One of the other pilots said.

" _Yeah, come on skipper._ " Another chimed in.

McClusky was thinking about cutting the patrol short when the radio crackled and the voice of the pilot of one of the three _J_ class Airships assigned to the _Enterprise_ performing AEW &C duties. " _Heads-up Fighting Six this is Magic, you officially got company. One heavy package of fast movers, fourteen confirmed bogeys, bearing 015, range fifty miles, altitude angles 18. Copy._ "

"Hang on second, Magic. Please repeat. Did you just say we have bogeys?" McClusky asked confused.

" _That's an affirmative Wild Bill. We got Bogeys coming in, velocity profile matches that of enemy single engined pursuit ships. Safe to assume that they are bandits we want you to investigate, at the moment we are also directing the Jolly Rogers to those unknowns as well._ " Magic replied.

"Alright, Magic. Fighting Six moving to investigate." Wild Bill replied. "Alright Fighting Six, you heard Magic. Looks like we got a job to do. Come on boys." McClusky said and grinned at the chorus of groans as he guided his crate onto bearing 015 and leveled off at an altitude of twenty-nine thousand feet. This made McClusky smirk with glee, his crates were going to have a ten-thousand foot altitude advantage over the enemy crates, plus considering the time of day, it would take a little maneuvering but they could end up coming out of sun, directly behind the enemy.

"Alright squadron, let's go over the established rules of engaging enemy airplanes one more time, what have we learned over the past month?" McClusky asked.

" _Sir, that it's preferable to attack from higher altitude!_ " Wilder said excitedly.

"Yes, that's correct Boxer Three. Alright, so what is your life and what is your life insurance when clashing with enemy crates?" McClusky asked.

" _First off boss, why the hell do you do this Q &A Session whenever we are doing drills?_" A man by the name of Biggs asked.

"It's so idiots like you Boxer Seven whose ego writes checks that your body can't cash, doesn't get yourself killed." McClusky snapped.

" _Yessir._ " Biggs replied sheepishly.

"Anyway, what's the answer to my question?" McClusky asked again.

" _Sir! It's speed is life and energy is life insurance!_ " Alison Baker replied.

"Damn right Boxer Four and we are going to start this advantage with one hell of an energy and speed advantage!" McClusky said with a grin.

" _Right, so what is next?_ " The pilot of Boxer Five asked.

"Simple, Magic. Position on enemy forces." Wild Bill said.

" _Roger, one Bogey dope coming right up!_ " Magic said.

"Alright, Magic. What the fuck is a "Bogey dope"?" Wild Bill asked confused.

" _Something I just made up, one of the definitions of dope is getting the lowdown on something. Plus we call unknown airships, helicopters, and now crates bogeys. Besides Bogey dope is less of a mouthful than "Requesting current status of Bogeys." if you ask me._ " Magic replied.

 _Clever bastard, I'll just add that to my growing list of slang._ McClusky thought with a smile. "Alright, Magic, give us a Bogey dope." McClusky ordered.

" _Roger, one bogey dope. Enemy contacts are still at Angels 18, bearing 015, range thirty miles! They should be in visual range at any moment._ " Magic reported calmly.

"Affirmative, alright Fighting Six. I want your heads on a swivel. Try to keep your gazes looking low. We have a ten thousand foot altitude advantage over the enemy. Remember stick with your partner at all times once we engage and don't go chasing after kills, and also you kill them and not you!" McClusky said.

" _Roger boss!_ " The various pilots of Fighting Six replied.

They continued on for several more minutes, before one of the pilots called out. " _Visual contact! They're on our left!_ "

"Where?! Give me a direction, Boxer Ten!" McClusky said.

" _Uh, dammit. Ten o'clock low!_ " Boxer Ten replied.

"The fuck does that mean?" McClusky asked thoroughly perplexed.

" _Imagine an analog clock sir! Bogies at the Ten o'clock position!_ " Boxer Ten called out frantically.

 _Well, that's easier than using bearings. We may as well use that for now on._ McClusky thought as he peered over the engine cowling of his fighter. He gazed down low and spotted fourteen crates flying in a double vee formation with seven crates apiece.

"Magic, we got a visual. Bogeys confirmed. Fourteen contacts, do we have any crates that are painted dark grey, red, white, and black?" McClusky asked over the radio.

" _That's a negative Wild Bill, you got bandits. Fighting Six you're cleared to engage, Weapons Free._ " Magic ordered grimly.

"Affirmative!" McClusky barked before giving out his next set of orders. "Okay, Fighting Six, let's go and introduce ourselves. Remember stick with you section leader and you kill them and not the other way around!" McClusky barked as he armed his guns.

" _Yessir!_ / _Roger boss!_ " We're the replies he got.

"Excellent! Now follow my lead!" He ordered as he winged over and put his crate into a howling power dive. The fifteen other crates of Fighting Six winged over and followed his lead.

"TALLY-HO!" McClusky yelled as he began to enter firing range. He pulled the trigger and with a thundering roar, his F1F's six fifty caliber machine guns came to life. Tracers arched toward the lead crate in the second vee and ripped into it's wing, ignited something important for the whole left wing exploded and sent the crate tumbling out of formation in a continuous roll to the left.

 ***BGM Ends***

* * *

 ***BGM: Ace Combat 5 OST: Open The War***

Sheten had decided as he gaped up at the sixteen craft, kites he realized with shock, that were barreling down on his squadron like bats out of hell that if he survived this encounter he was most certainly going to barbeque the ass of the Rabaul Base's Intelligence officer in molasses for saying that they had nothing to fear about the enemy having nothing that could match them.

But as it stood he nearly hadn't spotted them in time before they were nearly on top of his squadron. The paint job that they had was most certainly effective as he probably had spotted them earlier but mistook them for clouds.

The strange kites suddenly opened fire and from the wings of each of the enemy kites came six lethal streams of fire. Angry yellow tracers slashed downward and someone in the squadron yelled. " _SCATTER!_ " Over the radio, Sheten pitched his nose up, and as an enemy kite began to blitz through his crosshairs pulled the triggers and the kite shook as four 20mm cannons and two 7.62mm Machine Guns roared in angry defiance and tracers lashed out. But they missed by a far margin.

He climbed in a frantic attempt to gain altitude which he could translate into energy and then rolled over the top and craned his neck to get a look at the battle. What he saw amazed them, the Lancers had lost all unit cohesion there was numerous individual battles playing out.

As he watched one Lancer Squadron kite which was frantically trying to shake the two enemy kites that were hot on it's ass took at least twenty hits and a long stream of thick black smoke and a thin trail of white smoke started to pour out of the kite. The sky warrior startled by the hits, came out of the turn and pulled up and probably firewalled his engine. The lead kite fired again and raked the kite with tracers, to Sheten's horror the engine erupted into flames and the left horizontal stabilizer was shot clean off. The kite almost instantly rolled to the left and entered a downward spiral, a thick plume of oily black smoke coming from the kite as it fell from the sky.

A sky-warrior had been slain by their equal.

That stung.

"Lancers! Who's still breathing!?" He roared as another Lancer kite simply exploded.

The responses that he got wasn't good. His squadron was down five kites? They must have lost at least three kites in that first pass the enemy made. This wasn't good, still he completed his loop and dove back into the chaos.

He quickly slotted in onto the tail of an enemy kite, which almost instantly started to fly erratically. The enemy sky warrior was good, he would admit that he was having a bastard of a time trying to line up a clear shot. But he had been flying much longer than this guy, he eventually after at least forty-five seconds managed to get what he figured was a clean shot. He pulled the trigger and the guns roared angrily, to his glee tracers raked across his foe's kite which shuddered violently, but to his amazement it just soaked up the burst and kept on flying, but it was clearly damaged, probably severely so.

 _Didn't see that coming, damn those things are tough._ Sheten thought as he snap rolled away, ending his pursuit as a burst of tracers slashed by his wing, missing by inches. " _I got one!_ " Lancer Seven whooped with glee.

Sheten looked and spotted Lancer Seven pulling up and away from an enemy kite which was dropping from the sky, it's engine spewing flames as it did so. As he watched, he was thinking this one thing in his mind. _Come on, get out of it. Get out of it. You can't save that thing, bailout._ He thought, then to his amazement, the canopy opened and likely with a considerable amount of coaxing from his squadron mates, the sky warrior leaped from the burning craft and several moments later a singular white chute opened.

He swung around and moment later an enemy kite blitzed past him, he hadn't even seen the sucker. But as that kite blew by, he caught a glimpse of his advisory sitting in the cockpit. It appeared that he was just a kid in high school, maybe college. But then he caught a glimpse of the roundel emblazoned on the kite's side: a distinctive dark Navy Blue circle with a white five-pointed star with a small red circle in the middle of the star. He had seen that roundel before, it suddenly clicked.

"Attention Lancer squadron! We're engaged with the United States Junior Navy Academy!" Sheten growled over the radio as he swung his kite around.

" _You're kidding me! These guys are good, no way they can be High Schoolers! They are way too good for these kites to be piloted by High Schoolers! Plus how the fuck did the bastards get their hands on kites?!_ " Lancer Four shouted as she frantically tried to shake the enemy kite that was locked firmly on her tail, it's guns spitting hate.

"Considering that I just saw pilot up close. It's just no other thing! Also simple, the bastards made them." Sheten shouted as fifty caliber slugs suddenly tore into Lancer Four's kite, thick black smoke billowed from the engine and flames exploded out of the right wing of the craft, it rolled inverted and dropped like a rock.

" _Boss! We need to get out of he-_ " Lancer Two started to say but then the radio cutoff amid a startled a cry. He caught a glimpse of Lancer Two's kite. The engine was completely engulfed in flames and the kite was plunging out of the sky.

"Lancer Squadron! Pullout! Pullou-" Sheten started to say as he fired a solid burst into another enemy kite in a deflection shot as he was in a slight right hand turn getting rewarded with a beautiful plume of flames from the engine and then his kite without warning shuddered. His cockpit exploded in a hail of shattered transparent polycarbonate and rounds smashed the majority of the instrument panel and something grazed his head with such force that it slammed his head forward and caused his world to explode into fiery pain. With a scream of tortured metal something was ripped away from his fighter. He frantically revered his turn before rolling inverted and diving away. Frantically converting altitude into energy as he dove away from the carnage.

He pulled out at seven thousand feet and looked behind him, the enemy kites weren't pursuing him but several survivors from Lancer Squadron were also diving away from the chaos. One didn't make it, an enemy kite from the enemy squadron dove on him and light up his engine with tracer rounds, the kite went into a steeper dive before suddenly exploding.

The remaining kite leveled out at roughly his altitude and he chopped power allowing them to catch up. "Who's still alive?" Sheten asked over the radio as he put his heavily damaged kite in a slight climb.

 ***BGM ends***

" _I am boss, your kite is quite literally shot to hell! I can see through your vertical stabilizer._ " Lancer Six reported.

" _Lancer Nine here, somehow. My kite is performing very sluggishly, I may have a damaged engine._ " Another pilot added.

" _Lancer Thirteen here. Boss, how many do you think we got? The bastards got ten of us, should have been nine but one did a fantastic cheapshot on Lancer Three._ " The last surviving pilot stated.

"I got one for sure and probably shot another enemy kite to pieces because I landed a solid burst on target. I know that Lancer Seven got one as well." Sheten stated, grimly.

" _I got one for sure along with a another being a maybe. But, that little ambush worked most certainly in their favor._ " Lancer Thirteen replied sourly.

" _Agreed, they got three for sure on that first pass and we lost all unit cohesion in the ambush. It literally became every-sky warrior for themselves. The situation just degenerated from their._ " Lancer Six said.

"Yeah, hey can anyone raise Rabaul? I can't, my long-range radio is smashed." Sheten said as he put a hand up to his head to try and stem the blood flow.

" _Negative, sir. I am barely reading you clearly as it is. My antenna must be damaged and my long range radio is also smashed._ " Lancer Thirteen said, which Sheten noticed the transmission was scratchy and garbled.

" _Nada, no joy here. Long range radio is kaput._ " Lancer Six said as well with a heavy sigh.

"Well then. I really hope that our bomber gunners know what they are doing. Otherwise this is going to become a slaughter fest. Plus you know how light a fighter support that they get for suppressing AA mounts." Sheten said as he threw one last glance over his shoulder and saw that the enemy kites weren't pursuing them, they were probably counting their own losses and trying to figure out what to do next.

* * *

Wade "Wild Bill" McClusky scowled at the shape his squadron of fighters was in. They had splashed ten of enemy fighters and drove the remaining four off, but at a cost, his squadron was down six fighters, plus several other pilots were reporting serious damage to their Bearcats. The good news was that all six pilots had managed to bailout and that one of the _J_ -class Airships that the _Enterprise_ was equipped with was going to pick them up.

"How bad again is it Biggs?" Wade half-asked half-growled.

" _Pretty bad, sir. According to my wingmate he can see through my vertical and horizontal stabilizers. One of those four cannon bastards put a nice burst in me._ " Biggs replied.

"Damnit! Alright, try and keep her in the air. Anyone else damaged?" Wade asked over the radio.

" _Judging by the horrendous racket this thing is making, I think my engine is down at least a cylinder maybe more._ " Boxer Twelve said amid an absolutely horrific sounding vibration.

"Great, alright. Still that went better than expected. Good job boys and girls. Let's just wait for Sea Goblin to get his slow poke ass over here and then we'll escort him home." Wild Bill said.

" _Amen to that._ " One pilot said.

" _Yeah, let me tell you I can't wait to get back to the Big E. I am all but certain I am going to have some nasty cricks in my neck and back._ " One pilot said, with a slight groan.

" _Laugh it up Gleason, I had a twenty mike mike just barely miss my left leg. I swear had it been an inch over well, I'd likely be down a leg._ " Boxer Sixteen snorted over the radio.

" _Shut up Boxer Eight, I took a goddamned graze by a 20mm round, the thing is now embedded somewhere between the floor and the belly of my plane. I just know it."_ Boxer Ten snarled angrily.

" _Oh don't get your undies in a twist Samuel. I've been forced to descend to twelve thousand feet because my oxygen system is on the blink._ " Boxer Nine spat.

"Would you guys please stop your contest to see who came the closest to dying?" Wild Bill asked over the radio.

" _Dude! Not FUNNY!_ " Alex Scott, the pilot of Boxer Eleven, and one of the pilots who had been shot down snarled angrily.

The various pilots who were still flying started laughing at the downed pilot's expense. While Alex and the other downed pilots bellowed profanity at their compatriots flying high above them.

* * *

 **AN: Alright, there we go folks, that's the end of this chapter!** **So yeah, here we go.**

The M9A3E2 Custer Tank, first designed in 1944 as a counter to the Tiger IIs that were beginning to appear in France, they later entered service in mid-1945 and faced the most lethal of Germany's Panzers, Entwining 75s and Entwining 50s which had gained a reputation for being immune to the mighty 90mm gun-armed Pershings and Sluggers from the front. Shaped vaguely like a T32 Heavy Tank, with the main difference being that it's turret was more in-line with those seen on Soviet JS-2s but bigger so it could have a crew of five. It was armed with a 120mm T53 main gun that was capable of defeating the frontal armor of Tiger IIs up to 1200 meters, defeating the frontal armor of E50s and Panthers up to a range of 1400 meters and 1600 meters respectively, plus it could defeat the frontal armor of E75s up to a range of 750 meters. It was also armed with a M2 Browning for use against gunships and airships by the commander, an coaxially mounted M1919 with another M1919 for the Assistant Driver. It was powered with a Continental AVSI-1790-6 engine producing 800 horsepower it has a top speed of forty-eight kilometers per hour. It has a turret front some 350 millimeters thick with a gun mantle some 600 millimeters thick and has 175 millimeters of frontal hull armor. The tank saw service from the end of World War II to the beginning of Vietnam.

The M48A1 Patton Main Battle Tank, this tank is for all intents and purposes the same as the OTL M48A1 but it's armed with a 105mm T5E1 Gun.

The Type 57 MBT, due to most of Japan sliding into the ocean thanks to mining in the 1920s. Japan was forced to increase its Navy and downsize it's army. As a result, the Imperial Japanese Army is one of the most elite armies in the world. The Type 55 MBT when it was first unveiled even made the Soviets worried, with a hull similar to the Leopard 1 in appearance, with a turret that was based off the Custer's. It's armed with a 100mm/L55 main gun based on the Type 98 10cm/65 caliber DP gun. In addition it's armed with a 13mm HMG for use against gunships and airships by the commander, a coaxial 7.7mm machine gun. It has a crew of four and is powered by a 850 horsepower engine and has a top speed of eighty kilometers per hour, it's armor sadly is nothing to write home about only 130 millimeters of frontal hull armor and 250 millimeters of frontal turret armor, with a gun mantle 120 millimeters thick and it only gets worse from their.

The Type-5 Ke-Ho Kai is Japan's main scout tank, equipped with a 1000 horsepower twin-turbocharged V8 Diesel Engine and armed with a high-velocity low recoil 75mm Main gun and a 7.7mm Coaxial Gun, it's heaviest armor is only twenty millimeters thick. The frame and chassis was heavily redesigned as was the turret.

The M203 Grenade Launcher, this 40mm Underbarrel Grenade launcher has gone through several variations and design changes. The newest and most common model the M203A3 first entered service in the 1990s, changes to the design included a new firing system that made dealing with misfires easier as in instead of opening the thing, catching the grenade, reinserting it, and pulling the trigger, you just flip it open and reclose it. Another improvement is the feeding system, instead of sliding the barrel forward to insert he grenade, the barrel is now mounted on a pivot near the front. It can be slung under the M5 Folsom Series, the M14, M16, M4, and the modular M8 Rifle; in the process of being replaced by the M320 Grenade Launcher.

The M1918A2 BAR, the variant of Browning Automatic Rifle assigned to Junior Marines is basically an M1918 BAR, but since it serves in the SAW role it fires the same round that the Folsom fires, 6.8x45mm NATO rounds. The M1919A4s and M1919A6s fires 7.62x51mm NATO rounds.

The _Ravager_ class Heavy Missile Cruiser was one of the predominate designs that the United Imperial Republic aka the Kraken Republic used during the Kraken War. The ship was roughly 600 feet long, armed with twelve 8in/52 caliber Naval Guns in five turrets, three triples and two twins with three superfiring turrets forward and two superfiring turrets aft, mounts I, II, and IV were triples while mounts III and V were twins for twelve guns. These guns could achieve a rate of fire of eight rounds per minute. For additional armaments she was armed with twelve 5in/55 caliber guns in four twin mounts and four single mounts, sixteen twenty-four inch torpedo tubes in four quadruple launchers, with two having a forward arc and two having an aft arc. They are equipped with a Mark 57 PVLS style missile system with forty-eight cells scattered throughout the ship, most of the time SAMs and Cruise Missiles are carried in the cells, although on occasion ASMs have been fired from these ships. With a top speed of thirty-five knots thanks to their powerful Gas Turbine engines they are quick too. For anti-air and anti-missile defense they are equipped with four CIWS mounts, twenty-four 30mm AA guns in twelve dual mounts, and thirty-eight 12.7mm machine guns in both single and double mounts, plus the five inch guns. They have 3.5 inches of belt armor at most but it tapers down to only a half inch towards the edges of the belt, the deck armor is at most 2.5 inches thick, with 2 inch thick armor for the barbettes, the turret armor themselves are only an inch thick.

The _Dominator_ class Heavy Cruiser, the other predominate Kraken Fleet Heavy Cruiser class, it's an all-gun cruiser. It does have torpedoes but isn't armed with missiles and it does emphasis the gun part. Armed with no-less than _five_ superfiring three gun turrets each equipped with 203mm/52 caliber guns for a grand total of a _fifteen_ gun broadside. For a torpedo armament it's nothing special just two quadruple twenty-four inch torpedo mounts one on each side. These ships are six hundred ten feet long, they have a top speed of thirty-three knots. Their armor is better than the _Ravager_ class, with a six inch thick belt, three inches of deck armor, two and half inches of turret barbette armor, and two inches of turret armor. For anti-air and anti-missile defense they have the exact same anti-air armament that the _Ravager_ class has.

The _Spirit_ class Light Cruiser, most certainly an interesting one, with a slender hull more fit for a destroyer and a top speed of thirty six knots. These ships are armed with twelve 152mm/50 caliber guns in three triple gun turrets, along with six 127mm/50 caliber guns, ten 30mm autocannons, fifteen HMGs, plus two triple torpedo tube launchers one to port and to starboard. However for all their speed, they don't have excellent armor, only a two inch belt, half inch armored decks, one and half inch barbettes, and one and half inch turrets.

The _Harbinger_ class Destroyer, this ship was the primary destroyer class of the war used by the Kraken Fleet. Coming in at three hundred eighty feet long with a top speed of thirty eight knots they were fast and lethal. They first appeared during the Escape from Surabaya more commonly known as the 2nd Battle of the Java Sea. In battles that followed afterward, the _Harbinger_ class and it's missile equipped cousin the _Reliant_ class which dropped the majority of it's gun armament for missiles. The ships were of modular welded construction, hundreds of both classes were built during the Kraken War.

The FS-250-A-0 and A-2 Tormentor Fighters were during the opening months of the war the primary fighter of United Imperial Republic Fleet Air Arm and Air Corps, equipped with a 1,700 horsepower twelve cylinder radial engine. Allowing the plane to reach speeds of 415 miles per hour, the craft was heavily armed with depending on the variant either two 20mm cannons and four 7.62mm machine guns or four 20mm cannons and two 7.62mm machine guns. This meant while it was slower and slightly less maneuverable than the Grumman F1F Bearcat, it was still a lethal opponent and in the hands of a capable pilot could even give F1Fs and later F2Fs a real hard run for their money. The planes weren't rocketships in the climbing department like the F1Fs were but they had a rate of climb of nearly 3,000 feet per minute. Combined with a range of 1,500 miles and a service ceiling of 38,000 feet they were solid aircraft. (Based upon the FW-190 A-1 and FW-190 A-4)

BH-35 Hydra Medium Bomber, the Hydra Bomber or Hydra as everyone called it was during the first two years of the war the primary United Imperial Republic bomber. The aircraft was unique in that it was powered by engines in a _pusher_ configuration instead of a tractor configuration, giving the craft a very unique look. The engines are unique they are twenty cylinder multi-bank inline engines with four banks of five cylinders per cylinder bank. These engines are turbo-charged and provide 2,750 horsepower each and turn a seven-bladed propeller. These craft have a range of over 2,000 miles and can carry twelve thousand five hundred pounds of bombs each or a single aerial torpedo. They are high-speed bombers capable of topping out at over three-hundred fifty miles per hour. For defensive measures they have three single mount machine guns chambered in 7.62x39mm, with one nose and one each in a blister aft of the wings and a single dual-barreled 7.62mm machine gun in a turret on top of the aircraft with a 270-degree arc of fire, in the tail they have a single 20mm cannon mount. During combat operations it was found that the Hydra had poor armor, it's defensive armament was for the most part ineffective with the exception of that cannon mount which often took F1F Pilots by surprise. The craft were succeeded by BH-38 Dragonfly heavy bomber. (Takes aspects from the G4M1 "Betty", the YB-17, and the YFM-1)


	3. Delays, Examinations, Action

**AN: Howdy folks! Thorthemighty321 here with another chapter of Haifuri: Iron Bottom Sound. In this chapter we see some familiar faces, a few new ones, and we get some more action. Still suffice to say, things are most certainly rising in action.**

 **Note the company Quicksilver Industries as well as its products aren't owned by me. They are in fact owned by Shockwave9001 on DeviantArt and used with permission.**

 **Anyway grab a refreshment, take a seat, and let's get this show rolling.**

* * *

 **1220 Hours, February 5th, 2020**

 **Somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean**

Moeka China, the class president and captain of the Yokosuka Girls Maritime High School ship _Ikoma_ at the moment wasn't in the best of moods at the moment. As it had turned out the _Ikoma_ 's propulsion plant was rather temperamental despite having gone through a major rebuild two years ago. It was just her luck that they had a major steam line that fed one of the four turbines pop, they were forced to secure the inboard starboard shaft and wait for it's steam line to go completely cold before they could start working on it. As a result they had been forced to secure their inboard port shaft so they wouldn't have to deal with uneven thrust.

As a result they were restricted to a speed of only fifteen knots, as a result of _that_ they probably weren't going to arrive in the Sealark Channel until the 7th. Originally it had been planned that _Akagi_ and _Kaga_ along with the _Ikoma_ , _Tokoro_ , _Yukikaze_ , _Arashi_ , and _Maikaze_ ; but with the war in the west breaking out and thus the _Akagi_ , _Kaga_ , _Yukikaze_ , _Arashi_ , and _Maikaze_ being reassigned to do rear echelon tasks, the _Tokoro_ being sunk with Noma and Rin, plus twenty two crew members from the HMS _Jupiter_ losing their lives and Akeno losing ten percent of her mobility in one leg plus having some substantial wounds. That meant only the _Ikoma_ could take part in this exercise, of course they were scheduled to arrive by late morning in the Sealark Channel on the sixth but now they were going to arrive on the seventh.

Moeka was at the moment sitting in the captain's chair on the bridge. Mentally going over in her mind how many other things could possibly go wrong. The _Ikoma_ was a fast ship, capable thanks to her latest propulsion plant overhaul and rebuild of thirty-five and half knots. She was looking out over the ocean straight to the horizon. Moeka sighed, something was just nagging at her, telling her that she was going to become unwittingly part of something greater, however for the moment she ignored it.

Suddenly the wired satellite phone that was next to the commander's station rang. The sharp sudden noise caused Moeka to jump slightly, she glanced at the phone base and frowned at the number. It was one Commodore Pete Allen, if memory served he was in-charge of the Cruiser Division that was in the Sealark Channel, wasn't it composed of _Quincy_ , _Chicago_ , _Astoria_ , and _Vincennes_? But wasn't that force under the overall command of a Australian named Crutchley, who in turn was under the command of an American named Winchester?

Moeka decided then and there that the chain of command was way too complicated, way too many guys in charge at too many different levels which could lead to confusion and thus in a battle that confusion unless it was rectified would lead to disaster. Still, she probably wanted to answer the phone, sighing she picked it up and answered. "This is Moeka China, class president and CO of the Yokosuka Girls Maritime High School ship _Ikoma_. How can I be of service?" she said in a dull monotone.

" _Finally! I've been trying to find that number for awhile. This is Commodore Pete Allen of Heavy Cruiser Division 12, speaking. Captain China I must ask, when will the_ Ikoma _arrive in theater?_ " The American growled with a thick Texan accent, if Moeka remember properly, United States Navy Junior Academy ship divisions were usually commanded by an actual United States Navy Officer, usually of the Commodore or Rear Admiral ranking. However the posting was also considered something of a joke. Still best to stay polite.

"I don't follow Commodore, this is just an expedition. Not a theater of war." Moeka said in a confused tone.

She heard a heavy sigh over the line before the American began speaking again. " _That's changed Captain China, a flight of our new fangled Resolutes have discovered that the Kraks have built an airfield on Guadalcanal. General Vandergrift is currently holding the airfield but considering that as we speak, one of our fighter squadrons is intercepting a hostile force of fighter crates, it's highly likely that we are going to come under air attack and I am willing to bet that the Krak Navy is going to pay us a visit as well in the near future._ " Commodore Pete said with sadness in his voice.

"So, you're asking me if I am still in for this, right sir?" Moeka asked, worry beginning to seep into her voice. The last time someone she knew had fought against the Kraks they'd been emotionally and physically scarred.

" _Exactly Captain, I am. I wouldn't hold it against you if you decide against coming. But as it stands, the cards are severely stacked against us, the majority of the big boys we got in theater right now are American Treaty Cruisers and a pair of Australian_ Kent _class Heavy Cruisers, the only battleship we got in theater is the_ North Carolina _and she's baby-sitting the Big E. I would certainly feel better having a battlecruiser in theater. But if you decline this offer, you'd have to go back to Yokosuka most likely and then you'd be doing rear echelon assignments while everyone else is fighting and dying on the frontlines._ " Pete replied dearly.

That gave Moeka pause, if they refused they'd be stuck in the area of Japan. The most action they'll like ever see if any would be likely defending against air attacks. On the other hand though, it was clear that friendly forces in the Sealark Channel area could clearly use a heavy hitter. But that would mean putting the lives of the one hundred thirty strong crew of the _Ikoma_ which was double her normal complement as a High School Ship at risk of being severely injured or worse. But she was also grateful for the enlarged crew, it meant that not only did her ship have a respectable DAMCON team but also that the entirety of _Ikoma_ 's battery of 40mm and 25mm AA guns could be fully manned. Still, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do.

"I am not sure Commodore as to what my choice will be. The _Ikoma_ is clearly needed desperately in theater that much is clear. But my ship, even though it's a High School Ship, the _Ikoma_ usually has a crew of sixty-five, enough to man the engine and boiler rooms, the primary fire control platform, the ammunition and powder handling rooms for the main battery, the radar stations, communications shack, have a pointer and trainer for each gun turret in the secondary, man the galley, man some of the AA guns, the bridge, and have a small DAMCON team. But after this war broke out, the _Ikoma_ 's crew was effectively doubled to give the snipes and DAMCON team a hand, plus being able to man all of the AA guns. It's saddening because I know in my heart that if we get in a pitched battle against anything heavier than a Heavy Cruiser the _Ikoma_ could lose a large percentage of her crew and I don't need that on my soul." Moeka explained.

There was a pause over the connection as that revelation sank in. " _It's the same here, all of our ships have larger crews, hell we're doing mass transfers of students out of the Atlantic Fleet and sending them to the Pacific so we can have more crew members to help man the ships, a lot of our ships in the Atlantic are now learning about show the flag operations instead of battle operations, it's going to bite us in the ass I just know it but considering how much of a meat-grinder this war is turning out to be, I've heard whispers that they may recommission the_ Texas _class and those old-timers are laid up in mothballs, as well as whispers that we may send the_ Iowa _and_ Montana _sisters to the front as well as some of the_ Des Moines _class plus the_ Boston, Galveston, Providence, _and_ Albany _class ships. But now a new theater has opened completely unexpectedly on us, and it's highly unlikely we're going to be getting any aid at all. Considering that the Kraks in the Western Theater are really tearing us all up._ " The Commodore replied in a sad tone.

"Okay that must mean the war is really going badly if you are that frantic for ships. Still, I mean so many different things can go wrong, but I also want a chance to prove myself, I was just so useless during the RATs outbreak. But, sir, I have to ask is it common when you are leading your ship into a combat theater for the first time for your mind to be saying one thing but your heart to be saying another?" Moeka asked, her voice filled with regret and sorrow about not being able stop the spread of the RATs infestation on her ship.

Again their was another pause. " _Sometimes yes, and sometimes no Captain. You learn to care for those under your command like they are family and in time, your crew comes to respect you like either a mother or a father. The last thing you want to do is go into battle knowing you could lose ones you almost consider family. But sometimes you have no other choice but to do it, because lives are on the line. However I've read the reports about the RATs virus and how for the majority of the school year you were barricaded inside the bridge. Yet think about what you really want, you said it yourself, you want to prove yourself. The important question here is, are_ you _ready for something like this?_ " Pete asked in a calm voice.

Moeka seriously had to think about that. It was true, however she did want to prove herself and considering that some of the students onboard the _Ikoma_ where from the _Musashi_ last year, they'd likely want a chance to prove themselves as well. The answer for her was now obvious.

"Thanks sir. I've made my decision now." Moeka said.

" _And your decision is?_ " The Commodore asked.

"Add the _Ikoma_ to the unit roster, we'll be arriving in theater on February 7th, 2020, probably by mid morning. The reason it won't be tomorrow is because we had a main steamline that fed one of the turbines pop on us, forced us to shut down two shafts. But our Chief Engineer said that she'll get us there, even if she has to get and push." Moeka said.

" _Good to hear Captain. It'll be nice to see a battlecruiser in theater, mainly because we won't have to worry about cruisers anymore. Still you'd likely have to have a chat with Crutchley in order to figure out if we should put the_ Ikoma _with a separate division, form a new division centered on her, or what. But I guess we'll hammer that out on the seventh._ " Pete said.

"Yessir, I understand and look forward to meeting you in-person!" Moeka said with loads of enthusiasm in her voice.

" _The same to you Captain._ " Commodore Pete said and then the line disconnected and Moeka hung up the phone. She had numerous thoughts swirling in her mind.

"Who was on the phone captain?" the helmsman asked curiously.

Moeka glanced at her. "Oh just Commodore Pete Allen of the 12th Heavy Cruiser Division, I think USN Heavy Cruiser Divisions are generally composed of four to six Heavy Cruisers in two squadrons of two to three ships apiece." Moeka replied.

"If I remember right the 12th is currently under strength, because don't they usually have a _Baltimore_ class and an _Oregon_ _City_ class ships assigned to them?" The helmsman asked curiously.

Moeka thought about that for a minute, before remembering a news report she'd read. "No, they don't; it's only a five ship division and that fifth ship is a _Portland_ class Heavy Cruiser, which if I remember right is the flagship. As for current strength they are slightly understrength. According to Naval Today the fifth ship in the division the USS _Squaw Valley_ is the only other Heavy Cruiser in the division and she was forced to return to Pearl Harbor with a steering engine casualty, that's nothing that can be fixed at sea so they were forced to return to port. But they still have four tough and powerful Heavy Cruisers. Still, I am curious as to what they'll do once the _Ikoma_ arrives in theater." She explained.

"Wait, I thought this was just a series of joint exercises. Why all of a sudden has it changed too theater? What does that even mean?" The Helmsman asked confused.

"I am going to explain that right now, not just to the bridge crew but the entire crew." Moeka said with a sigh as she stood up and picked up a microphone and toggled the 1MC.

She took a deep breath. "Now hear this! Now hear this!" she started, her voice being amplified by the speakers scattered throughout the various compartments inside the ship. "As I am sure you're all aware, the nations of Japan, United States, the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China are fighting tooth and nail against the United Imperial Republic, or as they have become known as during the Malay Barrier Incident, the Kraken Fleet or now the Kraken Republic. We all know that in some cases our loved ones or close friends are fighting hard in that conflict. But, the joint exercise we were slated to join has discovered that the Kraken Republic was planning to open a new theater in the South Pacific, being based out of an Airstrip on an island called Guadalcanal. Realizing what could this mean if Australia had its supply lines cut, General Vandergrift changed the tempo of operations from educational to war. There objective is quite simple, hold this airstrip at all costs. American and Australian Naval Academy Forces will maintain a presence in the Sealark Channel and when we arrive we are going to be joining them. I know that none of you wanted this, but I also know that some of you want to get in on the action and that others would be adamantly against it. But right now, when we arrive, the _Ikoma_ will hopefully be able to tip the scales so that no Kraken Fleet Cruiser would dare show it's face in the Sealark Channel until we are relieved by professional forces. It's official, from this moment on we are steaming under wartime conditions, this means at night we are going to be running a darkened ship and that we're at condition III at times. Whenever that alarm goes off, it's for real, remember the world that the Blue Mermaids are fighting in now, it's fraught with danger at every twist and turn. We were admitted to Yokosuka Girls Maritime High School so we could fulfill our dreams of becoming Blue Mermaids, but besides being Peacekeepers and Search and Rescue responders, they have another less well known task and that task is the one of soldier. It's a task that while we may not wish to go through it, we have to. Otherwise, how many innocent lives could be lost if the Kraken Fleet succeeds in cutting those supply lines to starvation and illness? We have to take part in this, I am not going to be lying in saying some us likely won't be making it back alive, but remember if there's anything that these many weeks at sea have taught us, it's that we're family. Now let's fight for peace, freedom, and justice, because those are _always_ worth fighting for." Moeka finished, even as cheers began to resound through the hull of the ship.

It had been in her mind a good speech. "We're with you Captain! Always." The deputy captain said.

"Thanks, now then let's get the _Ikoma_ prepped for war. I want the linoleum floors ripped out, same goes with the wood-panelling, we can keep the peacetime awnings and such up for another day or hell we can keep them up until radar detects trouble. Need to have some shade on the deck to shelter the deck hands from this sweltering South Pacific sun and once we get to Guadalcanal the nearly constant daily rains." Moeka ordered and the ship secretary looked at her confused.

"Why Captain? I mean removing the wood-panelling and linoleum floors? Why the hell should we do that?" The ship secretary, Kono Anbi asked perplexed.

"The reason Kono is quite simple. Both the Linoleum and wood-panelling are flammable and while I know that our "linoleum" flooring is really just PVC, the problem is that while it's somewhat difficult to get PVC to ignite it can and will burn, when it does it will release Hydrogen Chlorine in relation to its amount of chlorine content at an almost quantitative ratio. Now the problem here is that when Hydrogen Chlorine comes into contact with the water found in the human body. It becomes Hydrochloric acid, thus the results of being exposed to Hydrogen Chlorine are rather nasty. As for the wood-panelling it's red mahogany and while it's pretty and durable it's also flammable. Thus we need those hazards removed if we are going to be seeing combat." Moeka replied shaking her head.

Kono blinked in response. "Your kidding, right? You mean we have to remove basically all of the interior decor just because of the hazards that they pose? This ship is for educational purposes and _not_! Fighting! Fucking! WARS!" She shouted.

Moeka couldn't believe what she'd just heard and also slightly at how stupid Kono was being. "Then what the fuck do you think that this ship's nine 12.2in/50 caliber guns, sixteen 10cm/65 caliber DP guns, eight 24in torpedo tubes, twelve 40mm AA guns, twenty-six 25mm AA guns, and armor that is over eight inches thick in places are for then?! For show!? Like it or not Ms. Anbi, this ship while she's mostly for educational purposes it is also a powerful warship and if we can do something to help prevent the catastrophe that will unfold if Australia has its supply lines cut then damnit it all to hell we will!" She snapped angrily, blatantly pointing out the obvious as she gave Kono a harsh glare.

Kono simply wilted under Moeka's glare, a lesson from a Boatswain's Mate. Who according to her, the key to every rant or tirade was knowing not only when to use curse words, but also crafting the use of words in such a way that they make someone realize just how wrong they are, it also helps to add a harsh glare to the mix. "Yes Captain. I'll let the beautification team know about it ASAP." she said quietly before rushing out of the bridge.

"Think I was too harsh on her?" Moeka asked after a moment.

"Maybe a little, but yeah I have no clue how she managed to get high-enough scores to get assigned to a Capital Ship like the _Ikoma_. As a deck ape, perhaps but as the Ship Secretary? Not really." The Deputy Captain of the _Ikoma_ , Kaya Rise said.

"I guess you're right. It's just that Kono can be a little stupid at times. Still, I wonder why she acted that way. It doesn't make any sense at all, I am going to ask her what's up, later." Moeka said and Kaya nodded in response.

"You should do that Captain, Kono seemed extremely distressed about the idea of going into a war zone for some reason." Kaya said with a smile.

"You're right, why the hell didn't I notice it myself? I am going to go apologize to her at the end of the watch." Moeka replied.

After no one responded, Moeka sighed and decided to listen to the sounds of the ship. The force draft blowers were rumbling proudly and at a steady rate as well, she listened more intently, she could just barely make out the turbines as they worked putting out an ever so subtle whine. It was wrong to think of a ship as an inanimate object, a mere tool or means to an end; because they were more than that, take good care of a ship and when the chips are down _she_ would pull through for you.

A moment later however the hatchway opened and Kono stepped onto the bridge. Moeka seeing her chance turned toward her. "Kono, listen. I am sorry for acting the way I did, it's just that we've been forced into an extraordinary position and that they say that extraordinary positions make normal people do extraordinary things." She said calmly.

"No, Captain. It's my fault, but I got a lot on my mind." Kono said and then she reached into her pocket and pulled a piece of paper out and handed it to Moeka. "That's the reason I acted like I did." she said in a shy tone.

Moeka looked at the piece of paper. It was from Kono's mother, likely one last email from her. It read:

 _Kono,_

 _I am so sorry. But the_ Enoshima _is sinking and I am severely injured and may not survive after we abandon her. I love you with all my heart, please be strong._

 _Love,_

 _Mom_

"Did your mother survive, Kono?" Moeka asked as she handed the piece of paper back.

"No, she didn't. Two weeks ago I got one of those dreaded 'I regret to inform you' letters. They never found the survivors from the _Enoshima_ , just a few tattered life rafts and one of her Rigid Bouyant Boats, severely damaged and literally half sunk. They think that another _Independence_ class was in the process of rescuing the survivors when she got hit in the magazine and the resulting explosion opened the ship up and caused it to sink like a stone. Dealing the severe damage to the lifeboat and liferafts and killing the survivors from the _Enoshima_." Kono said, her expression becoming heartbroken.

"I am incredibly sorry for your loss Kono. You should've come forward about this, the crew of a ship is like a family. Had you told me or Kaya or hell even the ship's medical officer; we would've helped you get through this. However your mother was a Blue Mermaid correct?" Moeka asked.

"Yes she was, in my opinion of the best. Now she's gone and I'll never see her again, the official report stated that the _Enoshima_ was engaged by three enemy missile destroyers and that the ship sank after being hit by a heavy Anti-Ship Missile. But the report also stated that the _Enoshima_ went down swinging, destroying two enemy destroyers and damaging the third for sure." Kono said, sniffling with tears welling up in her eyes.

Moeka nodded understandingly. "Kono, I am incredibly sorry for your loss. But, I got to ask you a question. Was there a saying that your mother would say sometimes?" She asked.

Kono blinked before nodding. "Yes, should always say "Give aid to those who need it and be proactive to prevent others from needing aid." now after saying that phrase I feel like an idiot." She said her expression dropping.

"Something tells me that if your mother was in your current position she would have accepted our new task whole heartedly. We got to help the Americans and Australians prevent Australia from falling. We just got to, otherwise who knows how many could die from shortages." Moeka said with a smile.

"Agreed, let's." Kono said.

"Still, you ever need help with something like this. Don't be afraid to let us know, remember a ship crew is a family. We go through everything together." Moeka replied honestly, putting a reassuring hand on Kono's shoulder.

Kono nodded in understanding.

* * *

 **Sametime, Guadalcanal**

 **Jackson Field**

General Vandergrift sighed as he stepped off the LVTP-5 and onto solid ground for the first time. One of the first things he saw was that someone had put a wooden sign into the ground that said "Welcome to Jackson Field". He went over the tally again in his head, a small force of forty-one enemy combatants had remained behind in an attempt to prevent the air strip from being captured. The total right now for enemy forces was twenty-seven dead, twelve wounded in some way, and two who weren't wounded but had surrendered.

For friendly forces, it was three dead and twelve injured. While a normal USMC CO would be extremely happy with this result. In this case he wasn't, three young lives ended before they should've been. One had been lost while clearing what appeared to be the headquarters building of the air strip and the other two had been lost storming one of the pilot barrack buildings.

"General, sir!" a 2nd Semester Senior greeted with a nod.

"Ah Crenshaw. What's up son?" Vandergrift asked.

"We've identified several different weapons that the enemy is using sir. With respect you need to see them." The senior, David Crenshaw said.

"Why is that?" Vandergrift asked confused.

"They look an awful lot like weapons that new Netherland based company is producing. Either they somehow stole the designs or they gave them a license to manufacture. It's unnerving actually, mainly because they've been at the forefront of weapons development for a couple of years now and then finding out that the bad guys have some of their weapons? Well, I am pretty sure you get my drift, sir." David said with a frown; he was also one of the few who held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was in charge of one of the five regiments the United States Marine Corps Junior Academy Hollywood had deployed here.

"You mean Quicksilver Industries? I've heard about them, but not so sure about what makes their weapons so advanced." Vandergrift told him still slightly confused.

"Part of the reason that Quicksilver Industries is at the forefront of weapons development, is because well, they've solved the feeding problems that helical magazines sometimes have, figured out how to make for firearm production three-dimensional printing viable in terms of producing quality firearms, discovered how to build polymer barrels that will last almost as long as metal gun barrels, and most notably, their Mako Modular Combat Rifle was the first modular firearm that could in the field, have it's barrel changed out in a flash within just a few seconds, going from a SAW to a PDW in a flash and when combined with the ammunition that it fires, 6.8x45mm it's just incredibly lethal." David replied looking dour.

"Right, alright show me what you got." Vandergrift replied and David nodded before leading the general to where a makeshift table made from two crates and a plank of wood was. Laying on said makeshift table was several weapons of varying types, there was a pistol, a Personal Defense Weapon, what appeared to be a Carbine or maybe an Assault Rifle, another Assault Rifle, a Battle Rifle, a Sniper Rifle, and a Light Machine Gun.

The pistol well, it appeared to have an internal hammer, could be modified for either the right handed and left handed shooter to use relatively easily, the magazine was laying next to the pistol, next to that was a pistol round, bottom rails for laser sights or whatever else you may need, however he couldn't tell if it was a single-action or double-action pistol. Sitting beside the magazine was a single bullet, Vandergrift picked it up and examined it, he found to his shock that it was a 5.45mm pistol round, however something was different about it; that's when he realized that technically this was a wildcat cartridge, the case itself was clearly too long for it to be a 5.45x18mm round. The more he looked at the case, the more he realized that it had probably started life as a 7.62x25mm pistol round case before being necked down to accept the 5.45mm round. That meant this round was clearly inspired by 5.7x28mm round that FN Herstal manufactured. It could probably punch straight through lightweight body armor with ease.

"Damn, that's a nasty pistol." Vandegrift said.

"It sure is sir. I put a few rounds through one, it's incredibly smooth. Real easy trigger pull and well balanced as well." A Japanese student said nodding. Vandergrift looked at his nametag on his uniform, it read: Iwai Anzai.

Vandergrift moved down the table to the Personal Defense Weapon or PDW for short. It was an interesting weapon in terms of design, that was for sure and it obviously drew inspiration in terms of design from the FN Herstal P90 PDW. But it didn't have a horizontal magazine, instead it was positioned where you would find a traditional magazine in a bullpup weapon, behind the trigger. Another thing that caught his eye was the fact that the trigger was that the magazine was a helical magazine. It also had a built-in holographic sight instead of iron sights and had a tactical rail-system in-case one decided to replace the holographic sight with something like a red dot sight. And. "Is that a laser-aiming module?" Vandergrift asked amazed at seeing something in such a compact weapon and built-in no less!

"Near as we can wager it is, sir. Another thing, we've estimated that the helical magazine can contain upwards of forty to fifty rounds of ammunition. It's chambered in the same round as the Pistol is. I can imagine that this thing would be rather scary to fight against in close-quarters." Iwai said, looking at the thing.

"I can most certainly agree. Have you put a few rounds through this thing?" Vandergrift asked.

"Yessir I have. I'd reckon that it's rate of fire on full automatic is likely around 600 rounds per minute give or take roughly fifty rounds. Has recoil similar to a P90 more than likely, certainly a stable platform." Iwai said and Vandergrift nodded.

Vandergrift then moved to what he thought was an assault rifle. "Is this an Assault Rifle?" He asked, confused at seeing weapon almost the exact same size sitting next to it.

"No sir, this is a shotgun. It clearly draws aspects from both the AK and AR series of weapons. With the guts of the weapon clearly being drawn from the AK-series of weapons, but this thing has an AR-15 stock and foregrip, as well as a AK type charging handle that functions similar to an AR-15's bolt-stop and dust cover, locking the bolt back when the last round is fired as well as the dust cover. It has fiber optic iron sights on it, personally sir. This thing scared me, particularly when you realize that it's standard magazine is sixteen rounds of twelve gauge, which considering it has a slug barrel means even buckshot is nasty from this monster. It can't go full automatic thank god. As for putting rounds through it, well nice clean trigger pull and a metric ton of recoil, it's a shotgun after all." Iwai replied, looking at thing and picking up a shotgun shell.

"Great, I bet that's the reason why we lost a man clearing out the headquarters building." Vandergrift mumbled.

"No sir, that wasn't because of one of these monsters. Instead it was thanks to a goddamned KS-23M pump-action shotgun. The thing just laughed at Jackson's armor and put a slug right through his vest." Iwai said with a shudder and Vandergrift nodded in understanding. Wounds from shotgun slugs were never pretty.

"What do we got for an Assault Rifle?" Vandergrift asked, after moving down the table to it.

"A real lethal bastard, that's what." Iwai replied as Vandergrift picked the weapon up. It looked an awful lot like a IWI Tavor 21 that the Israeli Armed Forces used right down to magazine shape and placement, but it appeared to be more balanced, it also had a plastic connector, which connected the foregrip to the bottom of the magazine well. The weapon also appeared to use a large amount of polymer in it's construction and when Vandergrift glanced down the barrel, found that it used a chrome-lined polygonal rifled barrel. The primary sights were an open red dot sight, but it had polarized filter which while strange it worked wonderfully. It also had a nice little built in flash hider which also probably doubled as a silencer.

"What is it chambered in?" Vandergrift asked, but he already had a feeling that he knew what this monster was chambered in.

"It's chambered in 7.62x39mm, very nasty. Sounds a hell of a lot different from our stuff. The magazines contain thirty-five rounds each and we estimate that this design of assault rifle can fire at least eight hundred rounds per minute. It's a nasty piece of work sir." Iwai said, as Vandergrift set the powerful beast down.

Moving on, Vandergrift then hefted the Sniper Rifle, it was rather lethal looking. "Jesus." he breathed.

"Exactly sir, that monster has an absolutely silk-smooth straight-pull bolt, a free-floating barrel, plus it combines aspects from the TAC-50 and PTRD-41. Some of it's design aspects are from the TAC-50, but the caliber of round is from the PTRD-41, plus it has one hell of a nice electronic-seven power scope. This monster fires SLAP 14.5x114mm rounds, with that light-armor-penetrator being made out of Tungsten Carbide and the sabot is made out of aluminum. We reckon that this will punch right through our body armor, with tactical trauma plates up to a range of fifteen hundred meters, hell this beast maybe the exact reason why so many of our light-weight vehicles in China and Taiwan are getting knocked out, this sucker could likely kill an engine with one shot." Iwai said with a grimace.

"Great, that's just perfect then is it?" Vandergrift said putting the weapon in question back on the table.

"Yeah, anyway here's the battle rifle." Iwai said, hoisting the thing up.

Vandergrift whistled at the sight of it. It had a design that was similar to the assault rifle, but the magazine release wasn't a button but instead a switch. It had an AR-15 style dust cover and a M249 style charging handle, it didn't use curved magazines but instead used straight detachable box magazines. It had a bulkier feel and appearance to it overall, from the looks of it had an adjustable stock, this one came with a foregrip for better control. "What is it chambered in?" Vandergrift asked curiously.

"7.62x54mm, it's clearly a variant of 7.62x54mmR, but this one is a rimless round, probably for easier feeding. But regardless it's a monstrously powerful beast, we'd reckon that it has a rate of fire of around 600 rounds per minute. We also think that this thing can handle under-barrels and the same goes for the Assault Rifle and probably the shotgun as well." Iwai replied and Vandergrift paled noticeably, this wasn't good news at all.

"Exactly, anyway last monster that we got to deal with is this brute of an LMG." Iwai said hefting it.

Truth be told, the LMG looked incredibly powerful, a long twenty-one inch barrel, multiple tactical rails, the same type of red dot sight that was on the AR, a helical magazine, a bipod, an adjustable stock, backup forward iron sights, a laser aiming module, it also had a slim look to it. It was a brutal looking beast.

"Well that's something nasty, I can tell you that." Vandergrift said.

Suddenly a Marine came running up, a look on her face that said "We've found something we weren't expecting!", she skidded to a halt near Vandergrift. "Sir! You better come with me to the hangers, you're not going to believe what we found!" she said breathlessly.

"What is it?" Vandergrift asked in a confused tone.

"Sir, in the hangers, we've found planes!" The marine said and Vandergrift's eyes widened in shock.

Planes on the Kraken Airstrip now known as Jackson Field, the enemy must've really been close to launching operations. This was huge and could be a godsend for launching air operations.

* * *

 **0130 Hours, February 5th, 2020**

 **Somewhere over the Sealark Channel**

" _Jolly Leader,_ _why the hell are we out here? I mean, we didn't even get to help Fighting Six clobber those enemy pursuit crates and we got a second mission redirect order! Just what is going on?_ " Jolly Five asked bitterly.

"Jolly Five, let me tell you something. Considering that the joint expedition is off and now we are on a wartime footing. Which means we are supposed to be keeping an eye out for hostiles." Jolly Leader, one Wild Bill Kesso growled in response.

" _I know sir. But come on, this is just so incredibly boring!_ " Jolly Five snapped in response.

" _Oh shut-up Jolly Five. It's absolutely_ beautiful _flying weather today. Besides Fighting Six absolutely_ rocked _our foes. If they managed to do that to enemy fighters, then we can easily take the enemy!_ " Jolly Six said cheerfully.

" _Jolly Six, the reason that Fighting Six absolutely stomped that enemy squadron was because they had a ten thousand foot altitude advantage. At most we're likely to have only a three-thousand foot altitude advantage here. Besides you heard what Magic said, the velocity profile of the group we're intercepting has bombers. So stay on your toes._ " Jolly Seven chirped.

" _Please, from what I've seen in news reports. Those bombers don't appear to have any defensive arms. So it should be a turkey shoot._ " Jolly Three said with a laugh.

"Shut it Jolly Three, what if the bombers we are intercepting are those new ones? Those _do_ have visible defensive arms and while they may not be much, milspec armor-piercing rounds will screw our bullet-proof glass over in just a couple of hits. So be mindful of _that_." Wild Bill said bluntly.

" _Yessir._ " Jolly Three reported dully.

"Good." Wild Bill replied. "Magic, this is Jolly Leader, requesting bogey dope!"

" _Affirmative Wild Bill, enemy strike package is at Angels Twenty-seven and starting to descend. Bearing 320, eight miles._ " Magic said in a monotone voice.

"Thanks Magic, enemy at Angel twenty-seven and starting to descend. Bearing 320, eight miles. Alright, let's get ready to introduce ourselves Jolly Rogers!" Wild Bill said and he grinned at the replies he got.

The sixteen Bearcats of the Jolly Rogers were painted just like all of the other Bearcats, but their identifying logo was different; proudly painted on the engine cowling was a black skull and crossbones and of course Wild Bill had gone a step further, the vertical stabilizer on his plane was painted pitch black with a larger skull and crossbones on it.

The paint scheme was strictly non regulation and would have to go, but Wild Bill as well as the rest of the squadron _loved_ the vertical stabilizer paint design. It looked absolutely _badass_ and was very distinctive. However the reason that it would have to go was because of the fact that it was so distinctive and well highly visible. Not that the Jolly Rogers minded, it was clearcut and helped them identify their squadron leader's crate.

" _Hey boss, aren't you thinking of some other changes to your paint scheme on your fighter?_ " Jolly Twelve asked.

"I actually am, the paint scheme will involve white, black, and gold. It should be _quite_ distinctive. Hell, the paint job that's on the vertical stabilizer looks badass as _hell_ on my fighter, it will probably look good on every crate in the Jolly Rogers. I think we should get started immediately when we return to the Big E. After repairing battle damage that is, besides we need something that would _really_ distinguish our fighters from the rest." Wild Bill replied in a casual tone.

" _Isn't the small black flag with the white skull and crossbones on the engine cowling distinctive enough?_ " Jolly Ten asked in a confused tone.

"It is Jolly Ten, but I want something that at a distance can easily identify our planes. Thus helping with friend or foe identification." Wild Bill replied smartly.

" _Right, wait a minute. I got something Jolly Leader, ten o'clock low._ " Jolly Three replied in a calm tone.

Wild Bill for one was grateful that the new system for spotting enemy craft had been implemented. It helped by making communications short, clear, and to the point.

Still, as he peered over his engine cowling and looked in the indicated direction. He spotted shapes, the silver bodies of big twin-engined aircraft with smaller olive green single-engined aircraft. As far as he knew, they didn't have any twin-engined aircraft. It could mean only one thing, they had found enemy strike force.

"Tallyho! Enemy bombers escorted by fighters! Estimate angels 26, Jolly squadron, drop tanks and engage!" Wild Bill barked, before switching to his internal fuel and punching the release for his centerline external fuel tank. With a loud _thunk_ the 500 gallon centerline external fuel tank fell away from his plane. He then waggled his wings and winged over.

The rest of Jolly Squadron did the same, following their squadron leader into the fray. " _Jolly 1, engage._ " Magic reported as the Jolly Rogers engaged, with each squadron member calling out as they engaged the enemy.

 ***BGM: AC5 OST Supercircus***

Before long the sky was simply filled with tracers and planes flying in every direction.

" _Damnit! So many of them!"_ Jolly twelve growled angrily as he went into a scissors with an enemy fighter.

" _Well, here's our welcoming committee._ " A bomber pilot growled as the defensive arms on the bombers began to thunder.

" _Scratch one fighter!_ " Jolly Three whooped as he succeeded in splashing an enemy plane. The last time Wild Bill caught a glimpse of that enemy fighter it was rapidly losing altitude, thick white smoke billowing from it's engine.

" _Good kill!_ " Jolly Five exclaimed.

" _I am hit! I am on fire! Mayday! Mayday!_ " Jolly Seven screamed as his Bearcat dropped like a rock. Flames licking out of the engine cowling.

" _Bail out Jolly Seven! Get out of it!_ " Jolly Six shouted in alarm.

Wild Bill in the meantime came in on one of the twin-engined bombers. The top mounted machine guns spat fire at the Bearcat. In an effort to avoid the defensive fire he applied left rudder, effectively hitting brakes while also changing direction. It threw the aim of the enemy gunner off, tracers flew right past Wild Bill's windscreen. Cursing he swung his crate around and brought the crosshairs onto his foe and then he pulled the trigger.

The Bearcat's wings unleashed a tongue of flame several feet long as the six M2 Brownings bellowed their anger. Tracers slashed forth and began to riddle the enemy bomber, with a violent lurch, part of the wing was ripped away. Moments later the engine erupted into flames, thick black smoke billowed from it and the bomber entered a death spiral.

" _Damnit, one of our bombers just went down!_ " A bomber pilot cursed as the plane that Wild Bill had just shot down plunged from the sky. Small forms leaped from the craft, circular parachutes deploying.

" _Nice kill boss!_ " Jolly Five cheered.

" _Lookout Jolly Three! You got two Kraks diving on you!_ " Jolly Four shouted.

" _Shit!_ " Jolly Three shouted as she turned into them. Barely succeeding in throwing the aim of the enemy fighters off. She reversed her turn and went after them.

" _I got a hole in my left wing!_ " Jolly Nine growled angrily as she went into a barrel roll in order to get her pursuer in front of her. With the hunter now suddenly the hunted. The enemy flier panicked, Jolly Nine's browning's just ripped the enemy plane apart. " _Gotcha ya!_ "

" _I am hit! I am hit!_ " Jolly Thirteen screamed in a panicked voice.

"Bailout! Bailout!" Wild Bill yelled in alarm as he spotted Jolly Thirteen's craft.

It was on fire and out of control. However the next words from Jolly Thirteen's mouth stunned them all. " _The canopy is_ jammed _! It won't open! I can't get out!_ " Jolly Thirteen yelled in terror.

" _No! Windstorm, I don't care if you have to shoot your canopy open! Get out of that crate!_ " Jolly Two shouted in alarm.

" _I can't! I don't carry a pistol on me when I am flying! I didn't know we were switching to a war time standing today!_ " Windstorm replied.

 _No, goddamnit!_ Wild Bill thought morbidly as he watched Jolly Thirteen's crate drop from the sky. When it slammed into the water, the Bearcat simply broke apart on impact.

That made Wild Bill angry, _very_ angry. "Jolly Squadron? Kill them all." he ordered.

And then the Jolly Rogers tore into the enemy formation with incredible ferociousness. By the time it was over, the Jolly Rogers were going to be known by their nickname that they received that day: "The Skull Demons".

* * *

 **0350 Hours, February 5th, 2020**

 **Somewhere in the Sealark Channel**

Her hull cut purposefully through the water, this ship was by far the most unique looking ship in the entire Junior Naval Academy Force that was here at Guadalcanal.

She was 809 feet six inches long overall, with a width of 108 feet eleven inches overall, she had a beam of 83 feet two inches, at full load she drew 27 feet eleven inches of water, she was 143 feet tall overall, and at full load she displaced 28,500 tons. Her broad flat deck for launching her planes was made of thick and durable planks of North Washington Pine, towards the stern were five steel cables each three-quarters of an inch thick, roughly amidships on the portside was a small superstructure which also contained the funnel, for defensive armament she was armed with eight 5in/38 caliber Dual Purpose guns, twenty-four 40mm/L70 Bofors guns in quadruple mounts, one 1.1in quadruple mount, and thirty-eight 20mm/L70 Oerlikon guns.

Her hull shared the same paint scheme that the other American ships had, but her flight deck was stained Navy Blue. But unlike the other ships in the formations, her identification number wasn't on her hull, but instead was on her flight deck. That number was stained black and it was a number "6". The ship's transom on the storm read _Enterprise_.

The _Enterprise_ was simply put, a fighting city of steel. With six squadrons of planes each composed of either sixteen Resolutes or Bearcats, she carried a large number of planes. Out of all the Junior Navy Academy ships, herself and her three sisters were tied for 2nd place in terms of the largest crews, with a crew of six-hundred fifty. The only two ships that had bigger crews were the _Saratoga_ sisters with a seven hundred fifty strong crew.

Standing on one of the bridge wings was the CO and Class President, Alexander Fletcher, his grandfather Frank Fletcher had commanded the _Enterprise_ during WWII. It seemed fitting that he was now commanding her.

"Captain?" A voice asked. Alexander glanced to his left and saw that a member of the aviation division was also on the bridge wing.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I got the latest report from CIC. The Jolly Rogers have engaged and destroyed the near entirety of Raid-1. Eight crates lost, one KIA, and three WIA; according to Wild Bill." She said.

Alexander cursed under his breath. Fourteen planes lost, all of them Bearcats had been destroyed outright by enemy fire, three more in Fighting Six were simply write-offs, with another five damaged in some way. Now there was bound to be more planes that were simply going to be write-offs due to battle damage; as it stood though they were down seventeen planes or just over a full squadron.

"Scramble Nomad and Sea Goblin. Tell them it's a CSAR operation, prioritize rescuing our guys but if possible they are to rescue enemy aviators. After those operations are done, I want to pull the _Enterprise_ out of the theater, we are in need of a replacement pilot and replacement planes, plus additional planes in storage crates so we can replenish losses easier. I got to talk to the Admiral about it." Alexander said and the young aid nodded in response, saluted and then left.

When Alexander walked up to the hatch that led to the Admiral's office. He took a deep breath. He knew what was right for his ship and crew. Question was, how the hell would they be able to convince Crutchley to let the _Enterprise_ go. Then he figured out, they could insist that they need to leave the battle area for resupply, which was technically true. They did need replacement planes and more spare parts.

Sighing he knocked on the hatch. "Come."

Alexander stepped through the hatch. "Admiral Winchester, I got some bad news." he said.

"What is it son?" Admiral Jackson Winchester asked in response. At fifty-nine years of age, Admiral Jackson Winchester was surprisingly still an energetic soul, capable of during morning PT, giving the Marine compliment the run around.

"Latest report from the Jolly Rogers has come in." Alexander said.

"Oh? How does it look?" Jackson asked.

"Not good, the Jolly Rogers forced the enemy attack wave to turn back. But they lost seven planes in the process and suffered a single KIA. They also got several WIA, we will probably have to write several more planes off due to battle damage. As it stands we're down over an entire squadron. We need replacement aeroplanes, additional spare parts, etc. Personally, sir I think we need to pull the _Enterprise_ out. Give us a chance to replace our losses." Alexander said with a sigh.

"I can imagine. Problem is, how the hell do we convince Crutchley to let us go?" Jackson asked in a worried tone.

"I was thinking about that. What if we tell Crutchley that we are in need of resupply. It's not exactly a lie after all. We need more planes, additional ammunition, food, water, Coca-Cola, etc. I mean we are on a wartime footing now after all which means we need full stocks of ordinance and we need to get rid of a portion of the training crap and need to get more live ordinance. Linoleum flooring and decorative wood-paneling needs to be removed as well." Alexander said with a smile.

" _That_ would most certainly work. Besides it is true." Jackson replied.

"Sooner we can get the _Enterprise_ and her task group ready for war the better off we will be." Alexander agreed.

Thus it was decided that by the evening of the fifth the USS _Enterprise_ and her escorts we to pull out. Considering what happened on the night of February 6th, it was by far a good thing.

* * *

 **AN: Those familiar with history** _ **know**_ **where this is going. The United States Navy Junior Academy and the Royal Australian Junior Navy Academy are in for one hell of a brutal beatdown at the hands of the Kraken Navy.**

 **See it unfold in the next chapter: Nocte irae**


End file.
